Manufacturing sector to grow by 5%

The manufacturing sector is expected to post production growth of over 5% in 2014 — marking the first annual increase in three years — as the negative effects of the so-called ‘patent cliff’ begin to subside.

Latest provisional CSO figures published yesterday showed that production levels among manufacturing firms grew by 4.8% in the first quarter compared directly to the last three months of 2013; and were up by 4.4% on the first quarter of last year. Data for March shows a 4.7% monthly growth in production, and an 11.5% annualised jump. Earlier available February data — which had shown year-on-year growth of 5.3% — has been revised downwards to 3.5%.

The first quarter turnaround — following second half declines last year — was helped by a near 13% monthly increase in production, during March, from the technology and pharmaceutical-reliant ‘modern’ sector (also up by nearly 21% on a year-on-year measure), while the domestic economy-led ‘traditional’ sector saw production drop by 6.4% in the month and by 0.8% year-on-year.