Industrial production increased 18.6 per cent in volume in April 2000 when compared with the same month in 1999, according to the Industrial Production Index for February, March and April 2000 published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office.

For March the increase was 9.7 per cent and for February it was 1.7 per cent over the same period last year. The seasonally adjusted data indicates that production for the three months ending April 2000 is 0.5 per cent below than for the three months ended January 2000, the CSO said.

The unadjusted figures for February to April 2000, when compared with the same three-month period in 1999, showed production increases of 28.9 per cent for capital goods, 8 per cent for consumer goods and 0.2 per cent for intermediate products, the CSO said. The sharpest increase was in medical, precision and optical instruments, watches and clocks.