The value of services output in rose 0.2% month-on-month and 10.9% year-on-year in December, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

The volume of services rendered in the final month of 2022 increased 2.5% when compared to November and 6.9% from December 2021.

On a monthly basis, other services activities (+3.9%) was the sector was the highest level of growth in terms of value, ahead of information & communication (+0.8%) and transportation & storage (+0.1%)

Wholesale & retail trade (-2.9%), accommodation & food services (-2.3%), administrative & support service activities (-0.9%), and professional, scientific & technical activities (-0.1%) all registered monthly value declines.

Annually, most sectors recorded value growth, led by accommodation & food services (+54.7%), other service activities (+42.4%), and transportation & storage (+19.5%), albeit from low bases.

In Association with

Administrative & support services activities (+13.4%), information & communication (+9.4%), and wholesale & retail trade (+5.2%) also posted value increases year-on-year, while professional, scientific & technical activities (-2.2%) was the only sector to decline.

The sectors with the largest monthly volume increases were other services activities (+3.6%) and information & communication (+3.1%) while professional, scientific and technical (-1.6%), administrative & support services (-1.4%), wholesale & retail trade (-1.4%), and accommodation & food services (-1.1%) posted month-on-month declines.

The largest annual growth was in accommodation & food service(+45.8%), other service activities (+34.1%), and administrative & support service activities (+11.2%), again from a low base. 

Professional, scientific & technical activities (-3.1%) and wholesale & retail trade (-1.3%) were the only sectors to show a decrease. 

The value of services in December was 24% higher than in February 2020, the last month prior to Covid-19, driven by growth in information & communication (+48.4%), other services (+19.9%), and the wholesale & retail trade (+12.3%).

The volume of services in December 2022 was 19.7% higher than in February 2020, with some sectors showing an increase over the past 34 months. The largest rise was in information & communication (+50.2%).

Manufacturing

Elsewhere, the CSO founded industrial production in manufacturing industries rose 5.2% in Q4 compared to the previous quarter and 26.3% from Q4 2021.

The modern sector, which includes the pharmaceutical, computer, electronic and medical instrumentation sectors, recorded a 27% year-on-year increase in Q4 2022.

The corresponding increase for the traditional sector was 15.5%, with both increases reflecting higher export manufacturing activity and contract manufacturing in the multinational sectors.

"For instance, external trade statistics in the first 11 months of 2022 have shown a similar general upward trend," said Eamonn Cleary, statistician in the business statistics division at the CSO.

"Exports between January and November 2022 were up by €41bn (26.9%) compared with the same period in 2021, with medical & pharmaceutical products up by €16.7bn (28.8%), organic chemicals by €10.3bn (42.8%), machinery & transport equipment, which includes ICT, rose by €2.7bn (11.9%), and food products increased by €2.5bn (22.2%)."

(Pic: Getty Images)