Industrial production recovered strongly in July due to a rebound in the chemicals sector, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. Cliff Taylor reports.

They show production in manufacturing up 11.9 per cent on the previous month and 7 per cent ahead of the same month in 2003.

While the monthly increase has been revised down slightly from an earlier estimate, it was still the biggest monthly rise since last October and left industrial production up 3.7 per cent on the same period in 2003.

The upturn was led by chemicals and particularly the basic chemical sector. Basic chemical production jumped by 31.4 per cent on the previous month.

However reflecting earlier weakness, production in basic chemicals in the May to July period is still 3.7 per cent below the same three months in 2003.

An analysis by Davy Stockbrokers pointed out that, excluding basic chemicals, the remainder of the sector saw a monthly production increase of just 1 per cent.