Industry stumbles in August

photo: Glow Images / East News

The Central Statistical Office (GUS) released industrial out put data on Wednesday. In year-on-year terms the figure declined by 1.9 percent and compared to the previous month it fell by 8.5 percent.

The decline was largely affected by the construction sector, where output fell by as much as 15.7 percent year-on-year, GUS said.

PKO BP economist Piotr Bujak told Polish Radio that the worse situation in the Polish industrial sector is partly the result of a decline on Poland's main export markets. In his opinion, this is probably a temporary effect.

Bujak stressed that the food processing sector may continue to demonstrate a decline, due to Russia's embargo. Other sectors should fare better and some of them, like furniture production, have not stopped growing.

Analysts had expected year-on-year industrial output growth at about 0.7-0.8 percent.

“The deterioration recorded in the industrial sector in August may cause our economy to grow slower,” said Rafał Sadoch from Plus Bank. He stressed the impact of a decline recorded in the automotive industry.

Bank Pocztowy economist Monika Kurtek added that industrial production growth had been slowing down in June and July. However, the August figure was the first decline recorded since May 2013.

In her opinion, the results will translate into a Q3 2014 GDP growth visibly lower than the one recorded in the second quarter of this year. “I estimate is to be at about 3 percent year-on-year or even lower,” she said. (kw)