03 August 2009

The decline in economic activity has been most noticeable in industry and the signs of its recovery remain weak. The pace of contraction accelerated in the first quarter of 2009 in both EU and North America. Industrial production edged down also in the CIS countries by almost six percent from the previous quarter.

The slowdown began at the end of 2007 in North America. In EU, industrial production started declining after a relative peak in January 2008, whereas in the CIS region the industrial production plummeted somewhat later, after mid-2008.

In April 2009 decline in industrial production continued, also leveling off in some countries: Denmark, Italy, Kazakhstan, Romania and the United Kingdom. Two months of consecutive growth was observed in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Latvia and Poland. As a leading indicator, the industrial new orders kept declining in EU and Canada, but increased in the United States. The economic sentiment indicator anticipates better situation for EU with a rebound from historical lows in April and an increase in June for the third month in a row.

Note:  Data in this article are seasonally adjusted to allow development to be compared to the previous period thus providing faster indications of economic fluctuations.

(1) No data from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

(2) Data aggregated by gross value added in industry in 2005.

Source: UNECE Statistical Database