TALLINN — Estonia registered the largest annual increase in industrial production in the European Union in May, while Latvia follows as fourth.

Of those countries whose data was available for Eurostat, industrial production rose in all European Union member states except in Greece, where the decline was -6.3 percent, and Bulgaria with -1.7 percent. The smallest Baltic State, Estonia came on first with 17.2 percent annual increase, Latvia is fourth after Luxembourg and Sweden with 13.2 percent, while Lithuania made a small 3.2 percent increase.

In month-on-month comparison the increase in Estonia was 2.4 percent passing Finland. Lithuania follows with 2.0 percent, and Latvia with modest 0.3 percent.

According to Maris Lauri, Swedbank analyst, these results show that Estonian enterprises have restored their international competitiveness, however the domestic demand is still weak.

Lauri said that monthly numbers of Estonian industrial production and exports tend to fluctuate, but the overall trend seems to be very positive.

“If things will continue improving in global economy then Estonia’s recovery should continue as well,” Lauri told Baltic Reports.

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