Further evidence of the strength of the economy has been provided by the latest industrial turnover figures. The Central Statistic's Office figures show turnover up by almost 16 per cent in July, compared to the same month in 1996.

The turnover in transportable goods industries, which include chemicals, metals and engineering as well as food, drink and tobacco rose by 15.7 per cent, according to figures released yesterday.

The main growth was in chemicals, in particularly man-made fibres, metals and engineering, particularly office and data processing machinery. Food rose by just 3.9 per cent while drink and tobacco was up by 0.3 per cent.