Swedish Industrial Output Surges 9.0%

(RTTNews) - Sweden's industrial production grew sharply at the end of the year, data from Statistics Sweden showed on Monday.

Industrial production expanded a calendar-adjusted 9.0 percent year-over-year in December, following a 2.6 percent recovery in November.

Of the largest manufacturing industries, the chemical and pharmaceutical industry showed the largest positive development yearly with an increase of 44.2 percent, the agency said.

The annual growth in manufacturing output accelerated to 10.3 percent in December from 3.2 percent a month ago, and construction output advanced by 3.4 percent. Meanwhile, mining and quarrying output continued to decline by 9.1 percent.

Services, excluding financial and insurance services, rose 1.6 percent in December, following a 3.5 percent rise a month ago. .

On a monthly basis, industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 5.7 percent in December.

Separate official data showed that construction orders grew 5.8 percent annually in December versus a 5.0 percent climb in the previous month. The monthly gain in new orders was 2.0 percent.