CSO: Manufacturing production up 1.7% for January

The CSO has revealed that the volume of production for manufacturing in January of 2011 climbed 1.7% on January 2010.

IBEC has said that despite a slowdown in the growth rate, it looks like 2011 will be a buoyant year for manufacturing output.

IBEC senior economist Reetta Suonperä said: "At first glance it would seem that manufacturing got off to a relatively weak start for the year, with volume of production only up 1.7% on January 2010. Output in the high-tech modern sector grew by 1.5%, while the traditional sector posted growth of 1.7%. This is a substantial slowdown on the pace of growth at the end of last year.

"However, it is worth noting that January last year saw a very strong recovery in production volumes, so the apparent slowdown reflects that base effect. The data may also show some delayed effect from the bad weather conditions at the end of 2010; there was no impact evident in the December production figures and it would be surprising if the adverse weather had no short-term impact on output.

"The purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing continues to point towards strongly expanding activity, so we would expect the output numbers to recover in the coming months and overall 2011 should be a strong year for the manufacturing sector."