Irish Manufacturing Activity Falls Again

The squeeze on the Irish manufacturing sector continued last month, with a sustained drop in activity indicators.

Industrial conditions fell sharply, with the September NCB Purchasing Managers' Index recording 43.7.

This performance was worse than August, and only a slight improvement on July's record slump of 43.4.

A decline in activity is indicated by any figure indexed below 50.


Irish manufacturers continued to suffer from a lack of new orders, according to the index, with substantial falls in orders from foreign customers.

More gloom came in September, with the tenth monthly drop in employment levels.

However, the rate of deceleration seems to have reduced, with slumps in the last two months not proving as steep.

Running cost still rose in September, but inflation was eased by the fall in oil prices.

This index dropped to 63.9 from 69.5 in August.

NCB Economist Brain Devine suggested local firms were feeling the pinch from a dip in demand at home and aboard.

And demand within the euro zone and the UK is only set to continue over the coming months, according to the economist.

(PR/JM)