Industrial output at about 500m lei

The industrial production index over January-March 2009 was 75.8% or approximately 528.4 million lei, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the National Bureau of Statistics. The industrial production fell by about 24% compared with the corresponding period last year owing to the 53.9% decrease in production in extractive industry, 28.7% decrease in production in processing industry, and 3.3% decrease in production in the energy sector. This led to reductions of 0.8%, 22.7% and, respectively, 0.6% in the total production volume, the Bureau said. The production of nonmetallic mineral products declined by 41.9%, of clothes – by 23.4%, of wine – by 35.1%, of distilled alcoholic drinks – by 53.5%, of footwear – by 48.3%, of textile products – by 31.2%, of processed and canned meat and meat products – by 22.4%, of electric power – by 4.4%, of processed and canned fruit and vegetables – by 27.8%, of tobacco products – by 17.1%, etc. The companies that make the mentioned type of products say the production volume decreased due to sale-related difficulties, especially the reduction in the number of orders from foreign and national companies that consume industrial products and the insufficiency of raw material and financial resources. At the same time, the production of poultry rose 1.9 times, of plastic items – by 44.8%, of electrical appliances – by 26.3%, of pasta – by 16.9%, of dairy products – by 2.0%.