Irish industrial production continued to deteriorate in the last quarter of 2004 with weakness in the chemical sector a particular concern.
Industrial production in November 2004 was 10.4 per cent lower than in November 2003, according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office.
The "modern sector", comprising a number of high-technology and chemical sectors, showed an annual decrease in production for November 2004 of 12.4 per cent, while a decrease of 6.1 per cent was recorded in the "traditional" sector.
A three-month moving average to smooth out monthly volatility confirms the downward trend. Using this method, production in the three months to November 2004 declined by 4.1 per cent compared to the same period in 2003. The year-on-year October figure shows a 4.5 per cent fall.
The key chemicals sector, which accounts for almost one-third of Irish industrial production in value terms was down 17 per cent year on year but did represent a slight improvement on the previous month (-19.3 per cent). However, this was far lower than September's return of -7.7 per cent.
Economists were disappointed with the production figures considering the continued strength of the global economy in the second half of 2004.
Nevertheless, the relative outperformance of the more traditional areas of the economy suggests that there is some potential for an improvement in 2005 with investment picking up in the "modern" sector in 2005.