Positive Outlook For Irish Manufacturing Industry Division

IBEC, the group that represents Irish business, said it was positive to see that output from the Irish manufacturing sector is continuing to grow despite the very difficult trading conditions in the eurozone.

Commenting on the latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) industrial production figures IBEC chief economist Fergal O'Brien said: "It is really encouraging to see that the Irish manufacturing sector appears to be holding up well in the face of ongoing eurozone turmoil. Seasonally adjusted manufacturing output was up over 7% in October on the previous month and the annual increase was a very healthy 13.4%. Ireland's performance is in stark contrast to the recent trend in manufacturing output in the core eurozone countries.


"Ireland has a number of high value sectors which are relatively immune to the normal business cycle trends and these are helping to underpin our continued healthy export performance. In particular, output from the pharmachemical and food sectors performed strongly in October. Improved competitiveness has also meant that Irish firms are growing market share. However the latest figures show that not all sectors are immune from the eurozone slowdown. The drop in output in the engineering and plastics sectors is a concern."

(CD/GK)