This was the biggest year-on-year decline since November 2009, when industrial output fell 8.6 per cent and the national economy was in a deep recession.
Five macroeconomists polled by Hina predicted that industrial output this past March would contract 2.9 per cent on average from March 2011. Their decline forecasts ranged from one to 4.5 per cent.
In January, the year-on-year contraction of industrial output was 4.9 per cent and in February it was 5.2 per cent.
The decline was affected by weak domestic demand and unfavourable trends in the European Union, i.e. weaker foreign demand, Raiffeisenbank Austria analysts said, adding that the steep industrial output decline heralded a negative GDP result.
In the first three months 2012, industrial output declined 6.2 per cent on the year.