Stats: Sales Up by More Than 4 percent Across All Sectors in June

Bratislava, 12 August (TASR) - Sales in June were up year-on-year (y-o-y) across all five sectors monitored on a monthly basis, with the rate of growth actually accelerating in four of them, and especially in the construction sector, which posted double-digit growth, and industry with transport and warehousing coming in at more than 6 percent, the Statistics Office reported on Tuesday. In industry, sales were up by 6.4 percent y-o-y in fixed prices in June. Of the 16 monitored industrial sectors, eleven saw increases y-o-y, with metal production up by 12.2 percent, the production of coke and petroleum products rising by 71.5 percent, and rubber and plastics products increasing by 13.8 percent. Sales in the category of information and communications activities rose by 4.1 percent, the second-highest growth seen this year. In selected market services, sales were up by 4.4 percent, albeit with growth slowing down for the second consecutive month. Double-digit sales growth was reported in the construction sector - by 11.8 percent, while transport and warehousing posted a 6.5-percent increase. In monthly terms, sales increased only in the category of selected market services, by 2.8 percent, and in transport and warehousing, by 2 percent. Conversely, industry saw a dip of 1.8 percent, while information and communications activities was down by 0.4 percent and construction by 0.2 percent. In the first half of this year, turnovers increased across all five sectors, with the following hikes: industry - 6.1 percent, selected market services - 6.2 percent, transport and warehousing - 4 percent, information and communications activities - 2.8 percent, and construction - 10.5 percent. jrg/df/am