Driven by rapidly-slowing output from multinational firms, overall manufacturing output growth fell in April. Output remains above the rate recorded for last year, but was sharply lower compared to the previous month, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said yesterday.

Due to strong growth in December and January, the latest index of industrial production in April was 6.2 per cent higher than April 2006. Compared with growth of 13.4 per cent in March and 24.8 per cent in February, however, the latest figure suggests rapidly-slowing growth.

When seasonally adjusted, output was 3.6 per cent lower in April than in March. This compares with month-on-month growth of 0.5 per cent and -4.9 per cent in March and February, respectively, bringing output to a five-month low.

The monthly pattern was strongly driven by developments in the so-called "modern" sector, comprised mainly of foreign-owned high-technology multinationals, where output fell in monthly terms by 4.8 per cent in April. While remaining 7.3 per cent higher than a year before, annual growth in this sector has slowed rapidly from rates of 15.1 per cent and 31 per cent in March and February, respectively.

Production was slower but more stable in the indigenous "traditional" sector of manufacturing, rising by 0.6 per cent in month-on-month terms and by 2.6 per cent in annual terms.