Industrial output records quickest growth since November 2023 in March

Latest reading: Industrial output expanded 14.6% in month-on-month seasonally adjusted terms in March, which was above February's 11.5% increase. March's print marked the best reading since November 2023. Looking at the details of the release, modern sector production increased at a slower pace in March, while traditional sector output rose at a faster pace. The modern sector’s output tends to be volatile due to the presence of multinational-dominated industries, such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals and computers and electronics. On an annual basis, overall industrial production rose 46.6% in March, significantly above February’s 34.9% expansion and marking the best result since October 2022. Moreover, the trend improved, with the annual average growth of industrial production coming in at 6.5% in March, up from February's 2.7%.

Panelist insight: EIU analysts said: “If pharmaceutical products remain excluded by newly announced US tariffs, Ireland's growth will not be heavily affected by them. Nevertheless, trade and geopolitical uncertainty will probably slow down foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country, which could slightly dampen growth in the forecast period.”

How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Irish industry projections for the next ten years from a panel of 4 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable industry forecast available for Irish industry.

Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Irish industry projections.

Want to get access to the full dataset of Irish industry forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.