Industrial production decreased by 5.3%

Based on seasonally and working day-adjusted data, industrial output decreased by 2.4% compared to the previous month, so it did not confirm the recovery seen in the previous month, but industrial production still performed better compared to the previous quarter. The data suggest that the moderation in energy prices has not yet caused a uniform easing in energy-intensive sectors, whose production may have remained subdued. Compared to the 2015 average, industrial production increased by 19.1%, while it exceeded the 2010 average production level by 45.6%.

The stagnation of industrial production experienced since the beginning of the fourth quarter of last year was mainly caused by the curtailment or shutdown of production in energy-intensive sectors as a result of the explosion of energy prices. In some sectors, especially in the food industry, weakening internal and external demand resulted in more subdued production. Due to lower energy consumption (partly due to the mild winter weather and partly due to forced energy savings), industrial production was also dragged down by the decline in the production of the energy-producing sectors.