Poland's industrial production expanded at the slowest pace in nearly two years in December, as growth in both the manufacturing and mining sectors moderated along with a sharp decline in utility output, figures from Statistics Poland revealed on Monday.
Separate official data revealed that producer price inflation remained high in December even though it slightly decreased to a 9-month low.
Industrial production rose 1.0 percent annually in December, much slower than the 4.6 percent increase in November. Production has been rising since June 2020.
Further, the latest rate of increase was the slowest since January 2021, when production had grown only 0.7 percent.
Among sectors, manufacturing output advanced 6.1 percent from last year, but the pace of growth moderated from 9.2 percent in November. Similarly, mining and quarrying output expanded at a slower pace of 0.6 percent versus a 4.5 percent gain registered a month earlier.
Electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply output plunged 8.5 percent. Water supply was the only sector with an increase of 0.7 percent.
On a monthly basis, industrial output declined 6.4 percent in December, reversing a 2.9 percent rise in the prior month.
In a separate report, the statistical office revealed that producer price inflation eased slightly to 20.4 percent in December from 20.8 percent in November.
The current inflation rate was the weakest since February 2022, when prices had risen 16.1 percent.
Prices in the utility sector grew the most, by 66.8 percent annually in December, followed by the mining and quarrying sector with a 23.2 percent surge in prices.
Monthly, producer prices dropped 0.3 percent from November, when they slid by 0.5 percent.
Another report revealed that retail sales growth eased notably to 0.2 percent in December from 1.6 percent in November. This was the slowest rate of increase since the current sequence of growth began in March 2021.
The deepest annual decline was recorded in sales of furniture, radio, television, and household appliances, which slumped 10.4 percent.
Compared to the previous month, retail sales rebounded sharply by 13.1 percent in December, versus a 0.3 percent decrease in November. The recovery largely relied on a 30.7 percent jump in sales of newspapers, books, and other items in specialized stores.
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