Industrial production in Denmark rose to a record high in November, climbing above pre-financial crisis levels for the first time and adding to evidence of relatively robust economic growth. The numbers, released on Wednesday, followed a major revision of economic data two months ago that showed growth had been stronger than that of the euro zone from 2009 to 2015, erasing he earlier assumption that it had been lagging.
Wednesday's industrial production index rose by 6.6 percent in November to 124.7, beating an earlier record of 122.0 from April 2008. It has shown a positive trend since bottoming out at 89.5 in 2009, the year after the collapse of US bank Lehman Brothers. "This and many other indicators signals that the recovery in Denmark is moving up a gear. This means bright prospects for jobs and incomes, but it also increases the risk that it will suddenly go to too fast, resulting in a new crisis," Danske Bank's chief economist Las Olsen warned. The near-term outlook for the Danish manufacturing industry improved in December, another figure from the national statistics office showed earlier in January, suggesting that industrial production will continue to rise.
The Confederation of Danish Enterprise said, however, that production growth could be held back by Denmark's weakened wage competitiveness and by a global trend towards more protectionism. Denmark's economy is primarily export-drivenDenmark's main exports are machines, such as wind turbines, food, beverages and medicines. New Economy Minister Simon Emil Ammitzboll told Reuters in an interview in December that a wave of protectionism - which many fear with the election of Donald Trump as US president - could undermine economic growth in Denmark.