Production levels among the Republic's manufacturing companies continued to slow in October, according to data released yesterday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Provisional estimates show that manufacturing output in October was 1.5 per cent lower than in the same month of 2001. The decline follows a fall of 2.6 per cent one month previously.
The downward trend was repeated across the euro zone, where manufacturing suffered an average monthly decline of 0.2 per cent in October. The most significant reduction came in Luxembourg, where industrial production fell by 2.4 per cent.
The fall-off in industrial activity in the Republic is also evident in numbers for the period between August and October, which point to a 2.4 per cent curtailment in output on the preceding three-month period.
IIB Bank chief economist, Mr Austin Hughes, said the Irish numbers were "consistent with the idea of an economy chugging along" as the international downturn continued. He warned that an economic recovery was unlikely to arrive until a pick-up in production occurs.
"The catalyst in the turnaround for the economy is likely to come from these numbers and there's nothing there that suggests a turnaround is anywhere close at hand," he said.
Further gloom was provided yesterday by CSO figures on factory gate prices, which fell by 0.3 per cent last month, the second consecutive monthly decline.
On an annual basis, prices were 1.2 per cent lower than in the same month last year.
Fine Gael finance spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, said the wholesale prices offered more evidence of the Government's "mismanagement" of the economy. "This vividly illustrates the competitive pressures presently faced by business in the exposed sector of the economy," Mr Bruton said.
