31 January (BNS)

The production of Estonian industrial enterprises grew 18% last year compared to the previous year, the national statistics office reports. The growth was mainly driven by external demand but domestic demand also increased continually during the year, Statistics Estonia said.

Rapid growth in production with output increasing steadily by more than 20% compared to the same month of the previous year continued until August 2011. Beginning from September, growth slowed down considerably.

Compared to 2010, the production in manufacturing increased 22% whereas the production of energy decreased 3% due to a decline in the production of heat. The production in manufacturing increased mainly due to the growth in exports. More than 70% of all manufacturing output was sold on the external market. Export increased by more than one third or 36% in annual comparison.

Domestic demand was lower as sales increased by 14% compared to the previous year. However, the growth in domestic demand was faster than on the external market in the last quarter of 2011.

Last year production exceeded the previous year's volumes in almost all branches of industry. The growth in the manufacturing production was most influenced by the bigger branches such as manufacturing of electronic equipment where production doubled in annual comparison and the wood and metal industries which showed year-on-year growth of 12% and 16%, respectively. Of smaller branches the production increased considerably in the manufacturing of machinery and equipment, electrical equipment, chemicals and motor vehicles.

In December 2011 the production of industrial enterprises decreased 3% compared to the same month of 2010, this mostly on account of a drop in energy production. The production of electricity decreased 13% and of heat, 34% year-on-year.