Industrial Production Drops by 7.1 Percent in a Month Amid Pandemic Measures

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) has released its "Industrial Production Index" for March 2020, which was marked by the beginning of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) measures in Turkey after the country confirmed the first positive case on March 11, 2020.

According to the statistics shared by the Institute for March, industrial production decreased by 2 percent annually and by 7.1 percent monthly.

Some highlights from the statistics are as follows:

On an annual basis, when the subsectors of the industry were examined, the industrial production index of mining and quarrying decreased by 5.6 percent, that of the manufacturing decreased by 1.9 percent and electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply index decreased by 0.9 percent in March, compared with same month of previous year.

On a monthly basis, when the subsectors of the industry were examined, mining and quarrying index decreased by 2.2 percent, manufacturing index by 7.5 percent and electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply index by 5.7 percent in March 2020, compared with February.

In the first quarter of 2020, calendar adjusted industrial production increased by 4.4 percent compared with the same quarter of the previous year. The seasonally and calendar adjusted industrial production remained the same compared with the previous quarter.

According to the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) Finance's Industrial Production Expectation Survey, economists were expecting that the non-adjusted industrial production index would increase by 2.8 percent.

The industrial production statistics for April and May will be worthy of attention as it will fully show the impacts of the pandemic. (HA/SD)

* Source: TurkStat