New orders to Swedish industry decreased by 0.7 per cent from January to February, according to preliminary estimates from Statistics Sweden. This reflected a 2.8 per cent decrease in the domestic market and a 0.7 per cent increase in the export market.
New orders in the capital goods industry decreased from January to February by 0.1 per cent while new orders in the intermediate goods industry increased by 0.5 per cent.
New orders for the last three months (December-February) increased by 5.1 per cent compared to the preceding three months (September-November). The increase in the domestic market was 0.2 per cent and the increase in the export market was 8.8 per cent.
The total volume of new orders increased by 15.2 per cent for February 2004 compared to February 2003.
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Note: All comparisons between successive periods are based on seasonally adjusted index numbers in constant prices. Comparisons between the current period and the corresponding period of the previous year are based on not seasonally adjusted index numbers in constant prices.