...

Latvia's industrial production showing signs of recovery

Economy Materials 4 August 2020 04:19 (UTC +04:00)
Latvia's industrial production showing signs of recovery

After two months of sharp downturn, Latvia's industrial output is picking up again and nearing last year's volumes, the latest statistics showed.

According to the data released on Monday by the national statistics office, in June this year, Latvia's industrial output slipped by just 0.3 percent from the respective period last year, while manufacturing slowed by 2.3 percent year-on-year.

This represents a significant improvement in comparison with April and May when industrial production in Latvia fell by more than 7 percent due to the coronavirus crisis. Moreover, most recent figures even suggested that in July industrial output might show slight growth against the same month in 2019.

The Latvian Economics Ministry cautioned, however, that the negative effects of the pandemic will not disappear in the following months.

"The negative impact from the coronavirus is still being felt in manufacturing. Perspectives for the manufacturing sector, just like the economy in general, are uncertain. The pandemic is seriously affecting the global and Latvian economy, but the scale of this impact is hard to estimate," the Economics Ministry said.

The ministry noted that, unlike in May when the chemical industry was the only manufacturing segment showing growth, in June positive trends were recorded in several industries like food production, wood processing, manufacture of electric equipment and printing.

Tags:
Latest

Latest