Ireland: Industrial production shrinks in May
Latest reading: Industrial production fell 5.2% on a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis in May, following a 1.6% rise in the prior month.
Relative to the prior month’s data, readings in May softened for modern sector (-1.4% in seasonally adjusted month-on-month terms vs +2.5% in April) and traditional sector (-2.8% vs +1.7% in April).
The modern sector’s output tends to be volatile—even more so now as U.S. tariffs wreak havoc on trade flows—due to the presence of multinational-dominated industries, such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals and computers and electronics.
In annual terms, industrial production was down 20.3% in May, following a 4.1% drop in the prior month.