Industrial production in Sweden unexpectedly fell as the euro-area recession saps demand for exports from the largest Nordic economy.

New orders for industry followed the decrease in April with decreasing new orders also in May, Statistics Sweden said. The decrease was 2.6 percent compared to the previous month in seasonally adjusted figures. When comparing May of this year to the same month of the previous year, new orders decreased by 6.1 percent in calendar adjusted figures.

Industrial production decreased by 2.6 percent in May compared to April in seasonally adjusted figures, the statistic office also said. Compared with May 2012, industrial production decreased by 7.3 in calendar adjusted figures. The decrease in April was followed by an even larger decrease in May.

The Swedish central bank last week kept benchmark interest rates unchanged and stuck to a forecast for tightening to start in the second half of next year, saying the economy was on the way to a recovery.

The krona slid 0.8 percent to 8.80 per euro as of 9:42 a.m. in Stockholm, according to Bloomberg.