Industrial output, exports decline
For the seventh month in succession, industrial output declined in November 2008, with most economic sectors showing a drop in their production rate, according to data issued by the National Statistics Service (NSS) yesterday. Industrial output contracted by 5.9 percent compared with November 2007, while production in manufacturing declined by 5.5 percent year-on-year. The drop in manufacturing was mostly due to the decline in the output of textiles (31.5 percent) and basic metals (22.8 percent). In the first 11 months of last year, overall industrial output declined by 2.8 percent on an annual basis. Last November also saw a significant drop in exports, according to the NSS, proving they are not immune to the global crisis despite their original resilience. Compared with November 2007, exports shrank by 15.5 percent, while imports decreased by 16.3 percent in the same period, with the latter remaining three times as high as exports. The expected drop in imports has helped the current account deficit to narrow, as it fell from 3.21 billion euros in November 2007 to 2.67 billion euros in November 2008.
