Finland Times

The value of new orders in manufacturing was 10.1 per cent lower in April 2016 than twelve months earlier, according to Statistics Finland.

Orders have declined continuously for eight months. During January to April, orders went down by 6.6 per cent from the year before.

Enterprises received more orders in April than twelve months ago only in the textile industry, where the industry's orders grew by 11.4 per cent from the previous year. In other manufacturing main industries orders declined. In the chemical industry, orders declined by 3.1 per cent, in the industry of the manufacture of paper and paper board products by 8.8 per cent, and in the metal industry by 12.4 per cent from one year ago.

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 five industry categories. The time series start from January 2005 and their base year is 2010 (2010=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.