| dc.description.abstract | Economic activity in the Community and the rest of the world experienced an exceptionally sharp 'downturn in 1975. In terms of imports, there was a marked decrease in the volume of world trade, largely as a result of the considerable fall-off in demand from the industrialized countries. · Within the Community, activity declined steadily until the middle of the year. In spite of a brief recovery from the summer onwards, the volume of the gross domestic produCt fell by 2% compared to 1974 and the unemployment rate rose to some 4.5% of the working population. In addition to the five million unem-ployed many workers in the Community were also on short time, which meant a considerable r~duction in the number of hours worked. This unemployment was mainly the result of the depression affecting industrial production, which in 1975 was 7% below the level for the previous year for the Community as a whole. However, the depression did not affect all industries to the same extent. Because of differences in demand, the slump was most marked in the industries producing raw materials; semi-finished goods and capital goods. In this economic climate and especially as a result of the reduction in stocks, the Community iron and steel industry had to cut back its production, which fell from 155.6 million tonries in 1974 to around 125 million tonnes in 1975, i.e. by 19.5 %. Community crude steel· production thus reverted to its. 1968 level. For the Community as a whole, the rate of utilization of maximum crude steel pro-duction capacities did not exceed 66.2 %. Pig iron production showed a somewhat similar trend: 88.6 million tonnes in 1975 compared to 112.1 in 1974, i.e. a fall of al~ost 21% for the Community as a whole. |
