Irish manufacturing expanded at its fastest pace since mid-2022, a survey from the AIB S&P Global manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) has shown.
The rebound follows a jump in output and a rebound in new orders. It is only the third month in the past year the area has seen growth.
The PMI rose to 52.2 last month, up from 49.5 in January.
It has sat below the 50 mark, that separates expansion from contraction, for most of the past 16 months.
The February improvement was driven employment growing alongside new orders in January.
It was also impacted by a sharp increase in the sub-index measuring output from 54.4 to 50.9 that same month.
Authors of the survey said respondents credited the increased output to a strong improvement in domestic demand.
This offset a slight decline in the new export orders, caused by lower UK demand.
However, ongoing shipping problems due to the Red Sea conflict meant respondents faced longer delivery times and higher input prices.
This drove an increase in output prices, the first in almost a year. Input costs also rose at their fastest rate in a year, though they remained below their peak in May 2022.
Data revealed on Thursday showed that Ireland’s annual inflation rate fell to 2.2%, reaching a two-and-a-half year low.
Read More: Most UK Exporters Hit By Red Sea Disruption, Survey Shows
