Industrial sales in January-March were 7% higher year-on-year, said the National Statistical Institute. In the mining industry the increase was 3.5%; in the processing 7.9%; in the production and distribution of electricity, gas and water 5%. The increase is highest in metallurgical companies (49.9%) and in the petrochemical industry and processing of nuclear fuel (38.6%). A 10 to 20% decline is reported in the production of vehicles, in metal processing and the production of equipment for manufacture of rubber and plastics. In March alone, the year-on-year increase in industrial sales was 5.2%. Again, metallurgical and petrochemical companies reported the highest increase, 59 and 22.6% respectively. The first-quarter exports increased by 30.6% (26.8% in March alone). On the contrary sales on the domestic market dropped by 3.9 and 5.9% respectively