Ireland's manufacturing production levels slide 

Irish manufacturing output fell across most sectors in the three months to the end of October, CSO figures show.

There were notable year-on-year falls in production output across food, dairy, bakery, clothing and paper products. The three months also showed respective annualised falls of 12.9% and 22.5% in the Irish-made traditional sector and the tech and pharma multinational-led modern sector.

Manufacturing output fell by almost 7% compared to the preceding three months, the CSO said.

For October alone, production was up by 0.1% on a rolling monthly basis, but down by close to 16% year-on-year.

Further afield, booming car sales drove a stronger-than-expected jump in industrial output in October in Europe’s largest economy, Germany.

Stimulus measures

The German government has unleashed an unprecedented array of rescue and stimulus measures to help companies and consumers get through the Covid-19 pandemic as unscathed as possible, including incentives to buy electric and hybrid cars.

Industrial output was up by 3.2% on the month after an upwardly revised increase of 2.3% in the previous month, figures released by the country’s Federal Statistics Office showed.

However, production expectations in Germany’s industrial sector have deteriorated for the coming months.

• Additional reporting Reuters