Brexit reading flashes red for Irish factories

Crash-out Brexit fears caught up with Irish manufacturers in August as output contracted at a pace not seen since spring 2013.

That is according to the closely watched AIB Purchasing Managers’ Index, which showed that new business levels, new orders, and inflows of work from abroad fell back last month when Boris Johnson asserted his new administration was prepared to take Britain out of the EU without a deal and when global stock investors got increasingly jittery over the trade wars waged by US President Donald Trump.