Global industrial output declined by 6.0% in Q1 – UNIDO

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has reported a huge decline in the global industrial output, with manufacturing production slumping by 6.0 per cent in the first quarter this year compared to corresponding quarter’s output in 2019.

This organisation attributed the slump to “China’s lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, as well as ongoing uncertainties due to restrictions on trade between the US and China and the so-called Brexit”, the report indicated.

This is even as it projected further drop in manufacturing output for industrialised, as well as developing and emerging industrial economies (excluding China), in the months ahead as a large number of industrialised countries partially shut down their economies as a containment strategy for COVID-19 from March 2020 onwards.

The report stated that “Africa’s manufacturing output indicated a slight increase of 0.2 per cent for the first quarter of 2020. Compared to the first quarter of the previous year, growth estimates based on limited data for African countries generally indicated a moderate rise in manufacturing output of 0.7 per cent.”

“With growth rates of 6.3 per cent, 3.1 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 0.3 per cent, Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal, respectively, represented countries with expanding year-on-year manufacturing production in the first quarter of 2019. The region’s most industrialised country, South Africa, experienced an expansion in manufacturing output as well, reaching a year-on-year growth rate of 0.5 per cent.

According to the global organisation, compared to the previous quarter, however, the seasonally adjusted estimates implied a decline of 2.4 per cent. The important automotive industry recorded one of the most dramatic plunges (-6.8 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2018) it further stated.

UNIDO also reported in the quarter under review, industrialised economies registered a contraction in manufacturing output of 2.5 per cent, adding that among Asian industrialised economies, manufacturing output remained almost unchanged, mainly due to the solid performance of South Korea and Taiwan, ROC.