Manufacturing growth eases to 18-month low point

Growth in the manufacturing part of the economy continued last month, but progress was at its weakest level for a year and a half, latest monthly data from specialist financial services group Investec shows.

Investec’s latest manufacturing purchasing managers’ index has shown a reading of 53.6 for August, down from 56.7 in July but still well up on the neutral 50 point mark, which separates a sector in growth mode from a contracting one.

That means that Ireland’s manufacturing sector has technically been in growth mode for the last 27 months.