Textiles, chemicals, machinery show manufacturing growth in April 2005

22 Jun '05

3 min read

The euro-zone1 industrial new orders index2 rose by 1.5% in April 2005 compared to March 2005, Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, estimates.

The index fell by 0.3% in March3 and by 2.3% in February. EU25 new orders grew by 2.1% in April 2005, after falls of 1.8% in March3 and 1.7% in February.

In April 2005 compared to April 2004, industrial new orders increased by 1.6% in the euro-zone and by 2.3% in the EU25.

Monthly changes

In April 2005 compared to March 2005, machinery and equipment grew by 7.4% in the euro-zone and by 2.6% in the EU25.

Manufacturing of textiles and textile products increased by 4.7% and 4.0% respectively. Basic metals and fabricated metal products gained 3.3% in the euro-zone and 3.4% in the EU25.

Chemicals and chemical products rose by 0.1% in the euro-zone, but decreased by 0.3% in the EU25. Transport equipment declined by 1.5% in the euro-zone, but grew by 1.7% in the EU25.

In April 2005, and among the Member States for which data are available, total manufacturing working on orders rose in eleven Member States and fell in four.

The highest increases were registered in Hungary (+54.2%), Slovakia (+10.8%), the Czech Republic (+10.2%) and Latvia (+5.9%). Decreases were recorded in Portugal
(-7.4%), France (-4.8%), Germany (-2.7%) and Estonia (-1.6%).

Annual changes

In April 2005 compared to April 2004, chemicals and chemical products increased by 7.6% in the euro-zone and by 5.7% in the EU25.

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