Stats: New Orders in Industry Decrease for Sixth Straight Month in March

Bratislava, 18 May (TASR) - New orders in Slovak industry went down by 1 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) to €6.07 billion in March 2026, the Statistics Office reported on Monday, adding that the decline continued for the sixth consecutive month. After seasonal adjustments, new orders in industry increased by 4.5 percent month-on-month (m-o-m) in March. Six of the 12 monitored branches posted y-o-y decreases in volumes of orders in March. "The overall development was most significantly affected by y-o-y drops in orders in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (by 5.4 percent), in the production and processing of metals (by 4.5 percent), and in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products (22.6 percent)," stated the office. Conversely, orders saw a y-o-y increase in the manufacture of machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified (by 13.2 percent), in the production of metal structures excluding machinery and equipment (by 12.6 percent) and in the manufacture of other means of transport (45.4 percent). ko