Irish industrial production fell sharply in the three months to July as the slowing global economy took its toll on output, according to estimates released today by the Central Statistics Office.
The seasonally adjusted volume of industrial production for the three months ended July 2001 was 12.7 per cent down on the previous three-month period.
The extent of the downturn can be seen by the fall in annual output to minus 2.3 per cent in July. Annual industrial production growth was running at 40.6 per cent as recently as February this year.
July is the first month of negative growth since January 2000 which was caused by the extended millennium holiday period.