Eight months into the year, Macedonian industry is technically in the black - but only just. According to the State Statistical Office, industrial production in August was 1.9 percent lower than in August last year. That pulled cumulative growth for January-August down to 0.6 percent, from 0.9 percent after the first seven months.

The year doesn't look like a recovery. It looks like a zigzag. January brought a 6.6 percent drop, February another minus 4.2, April a 7.6 percent jump, May back in the red. After all those ups and downs, the line ends up almost flat.

Where it fell hardest

In August, mining and quarrying posted the deepest fall, down 10.1 percent. Manufacturing, by far the biggest slice of domestic production, was down 1.3 percent. Only electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply was up, by a modest 0.8 percent.

The most worrying figure is in capital goods, down 8.9 percent. Production of machinery and equipment fell 9.6 percent, motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers 8.7 percent, and electrical equipment 6.9 percent. These are the sectors we associate with exports and the big foreign-owned factories. Only consumer goods grew: durables by 5 percent, non-durables by 7.

Fewer people on the factory floor

The same office published the other half of the picture. The number of industrial workers in August was 3 percent lower than a year earlier, and 2.8 percent lower over the eight months. Mining lost 8 percent of its workers, manufacturing 2.8 percent. Employment is falling in every major industrial group - even in non-durable consumer goods, where output rose 7 percent while the workforce shrank 4.4 percent.

Growth of 0.6 percent with 3 percent fewer workers is not a number anyone calls a press conference for. If August's slump in machinery and car parts is an echo of weaker orders from Europe, the autumn will show whether it's a one-off or the start of a trend. Will anyone in the government come out and explain this table?