The relatively positive performance of Northern Ireland in a survey of the economies of UK regions should not be a reason for complacency, according to a leading local businessman.

In the survey, carried out by the British Chambers of Commerce towards the end of last year, the local manufacturing sector showed significant growth, with business confidence outstripping that of any other UK region. Firms in the service sector, however, reported a decline in overseas orders.

But the president of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce, Mr Stephen Kingon, said the figures only looked good because local trends habitually lagged a few months behind those in the rest of the UK. Things would probably get worse, he said, before they got better.

"There has been a severe downturn in the UK service sector in recent months," Mr Kingon said, "as well as in consumer demand. This has been reflected in a slowdown in demand across the board in the local economy.

In a separate survey of the engineering industry, Northern Ireland is also doing better than elsewhere in the UK. In the quarterly report Engineering Trends, the local engineering sector shows an increase in output of more than 20 per cent, compared with a fall of nearly 30 per cent in the rest of the UK.