31 January (BNS)

Estonian industrial companies produced 23% more output in 2010 that the year before; in December growth on year was 39%, Statistics Estonia said.

The growth was mainly due to foreign demand, but demand on the domestic market also grew steadily during the year.

2010 became the year of recovery from the economic crisis both in Estonia and in the EU as a whole. In April 2009 the industrial output in the EU fell to the lowest level of the period of crisis, contracting by one fifth compared with the same period last year. Estonia's industrial output fell 30% in the same period and continued in such a fall until July 2009.

From the beginning of 2010 the falling trend was replaced by a relatively steep growth. If in the middle of 2009 Estonia was the country with the biggest fall in output among countries of the European Union, then from Q2 it became the country with the biggest growth in output.

Overall in 2009 Estonia's industrial output fell in all branches of industry, but in 2010 the output surpassed the level of the previous year in nearly all the branches of industry.

The growth in output was mainly based on the growth in export. Two thirds of the total output of the manufacturing industry was sold to the foreign market.