Romania ranks first in Europe by the increase rate of industry backlog of orders, nineoclock.ro reported quoting The Money Channel. According to Eurostat, the index rose by over 27%, as opposed to a 0.1-percent decrease of the EU average.

In June, Romania reported a 27.8-percent increase in the number of new orders in industry, as compared to the corresponding period of 2007. The country thus ranks first in EU-27, followed by Latvia with a 26.9-percent increase and Lithuania with close to 23%.

On the other hand, production costs in industry will increase by a monthly 1.17% in the third quarter of the year, which is below the rate reported in April – June, 2008 (1.63%), yet above the one reported for Q3, 2007 (0.84%), according to a quarterly report issued by the National Prognosis Commission (CNP), Agerpres reports.

Production costs increased by 17.22% in the second quarter of the year as against Q2, 2007 and by 10.74% in June as against December 2007. In the first half of the year, the average increase in production costs was 15.84%, triggered primarily by the foreign component (21.31%), whereas production costs for the domestic market rose by 14.5%.

The turnover in industry is expected to increase by 13.3% in Q3, 2008 as against the corresponding period of 2007, according to the report issued by CNP. Turnover in industry is estimated to pick up 8.6% in the first nine months of the year, as compared to January – September 2007.

According to estimates by business operators, and considering the features of the period under analysis, in Q3, 2008 the turnover of industry operators working for the domestic market is expected to rise by 11.9% as compared to the corresponding period of 2007.