Industrial output surges by 11%

AUGUST saw an 11.4% year-on-year increase in output among the country’s manufacturing industries — comfortably beating expectations.

The strong performance for the month — production was up by 3.6% compared to July — was driven by a rare enough equally strong showing from both the technology and pharmaceutical-heavy “modern” sector and the “traditional” sector; both of which saw annualised increases of well over 10%.

Chief economist with Davy Stockbrokers Conall MacCoille said that yesterday’s figures from the CSO “provide very tentative evidence that GDP growth in the third quarter of the year may remain more robust than we had previously thought”.