Irish factories’ production levels increase 4% for April

PRODUCTION levels in Irish factories rose by 4% on a year-on-year basis during April, according to latest figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

According to the data, published yesterday, the most significant annualised production increases were evident in the areas of pharmaceutical products and beverages, which showed output increases of 11.3% and 9.9% respectively. The so-called ‘modern’ sector — which comprises a number of high-technology and chemical sectors — showed an annualised production increase of 2.6% in April, while the ‘traditional’ sector was up 1.4% year-on-year.

These latter figures compare to annual declines of 7.4% and 1.1% for the respective sectors in the March figures.

Yesterday’s CSO data did, however, also note that the seasonally adjusted production volume, for manufacturing industries, fell by 1.8% in the three months from the start of February to the end of April, when compared to the preceding three-month period.

While the April data is more positive than the annualised figures for March — when the CSO noted a 5.5% year-on-year decline in production levels — the preceding month’s gloomy showing led to a downbeat prognosis from Bloxham Stockbrokers’ Alan McQuaid, using them as ammunition to downgrade his growth forecasts for Irish manufacturing output for 2011 as a whole from a 5%-10% range to a more modest 3%-5% range.

While he pointed out that the general recovery in the worldwide economy should generate some upward momentum, as seen in part in the CSO’s April figures, a drop in global demand has been reflected in the generally modest showing for Irish production this year.