The dramatically sharp decline in industrial production is continuing in Finland, and industrial orders to companies have collapsed.
Output in February was more than 22 per cent lower than a year earlier. According to figures put out by Statistics Finland, industrial production declined by one fifth compared with the same time last year.
In February, production declined in all main sectors of industry. The decline was greatest in the forest industry, which saw a decline in output of about one third.
Orders for industry have declined sharply in the early part of the year. Statistics Finland says that the value of new orders for industry was 41 per cent lower than last year at the same time.
The value of orders also declined in all main sectors. As was the case in previous months, the decline in new orders was especially steep in the metals and engineering industry, where the fall was nearly 50 per cent.
The utilisation rate of manufacturing industry was 72 per cent in February, which was nearly 10 percentage points lower than a year ago at the same time.
