Irish products outperform EU

The growth in value of products manufactured by Irish firms outpaced the EU average by more than four times last year.

The value of Irish-manufactured products rose to almost €90bn in 2013, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office yesterday.

This represents an increase of 4.6% on the total value of products manufactured in 2012.

The strong growth recorded by Irish firms — which includes Irish companies’ foreign manufacturing plants — outpaced the EU average by more than four times.

The total value of manufacturing products produced by EU countries increased by 1.1% from €4.96 trillion in 2012 to €5.02tr last year.

Merrion Stockbrokers chief economist, Alan McQuaid, said that the figures are largely in line with other recent data which shows Ireland outperforming other EU countries.

“[The growth] is being driven by the chemical and pharmaceutical, and food and beverages sectors. The figures themselves indicate there’s no doubt that we’re outperforming the EU average.

“That would fit in with economic improvements and you would imagine that [manufacturing] would improve further with growing international demand... Ireland is better positioned than most to take advantage of those improvements,” said Mr McQuaid.

Almost 45% of Irish product sales came from the chemical and pharmaceutical industry last year, with sales totalling €40bn.

The food and beverages sector also performed well attributing for 24% of sales, while electrical goods witnessed a sharp decline, falling almost 9% in the 12 months.