New orders in manufacturing grow by 5.5%

The value of new orders in manufacturing was 5.5 per cent higher in February 2019 than twelve months earlier.

According to Statistics Finland,during January to February, orders grew by 4.4 per cent from the year before. Orders have grown continuously for three months.

In February, enterprises in all manufacturing industries received more orders than twelve months ago. In the metal industry, orders increased by 7.2 per cent year-on-year, and in the chemical industry by 3.2 per cent. In the industry of the manufacture of paper and paper board products, orders grew by 2.0 per cent year-on-year.

When interpreting these statistics, it should be borne in mind that they typically show strong fluctuations by month. Even new orders of substantial value are not examined over extended time periods but for the statistical reference month only.

The index of new orders in manufacturing describes development in the value of new orders received by enterprises for commodities and services that are meant to be produced by establishments located in Finland. These statistics are based on non-probability sampling, in which the basic observation unit is an enterprise or a kind-of-activity unit. The sample comprises monthly 400 to 450 enterprises or their kind-of-activity units. Index point figures and annual change percentages are published monthly for four industry categories. The time series start from January 2005 and their base year is 2015 (2015=100).

The index figures may become slightly revised as new data accumulate and enterprises report changes to their data. Due to supplementations, the latest 12 months are revised in the releases. A detailed description of the statistics and the calculation method are included in the quality description on the home page of the statistics.