Industrial production in the State fell more than 3 per cent in September to make the Irish economy the worst performer in the euro zone, according to figures released today.
Across the zone in September, industrial production fell 0.2 per cent from the previous month and declined 0.6 per cent from a year earlier, accordind to data from EU statistics office Eurostat.
Those were smaller declines than expected by economists, who had on average been looking for industrial output to fall 0.4 per cent on a monthly basis and to drop 0.7 per cent from a year earlier.
The biggest increase was seen in Luxembourg, at 4.2 per cent.
Eurostat revised August's figures to show output rose 0.2 per cent on a monthly basis and fell 1.2 per cent year-on-year. It had previously reported the changes as an increase of 0.6 per cent and a decline of 0.8 per cent respectively.
Seasonally adjusted data showed production, excluding contruction, contracted by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter compared with the second, the first quarterly contraction in output reported this year, a Eurostat official said.
Additional reporting Reuters
