DAVY VIEW

This morning’s Irish manufacturing PMI at 52.0 paints a subdued picture, with output and orders falling for a second successive month – hurt by COVID-19 restrictions. Also, disruption from Brexit has led to record delays in delivery times, contributing to the sharpest rise in input prices in four years and the fastest increase in output prices in ten years. Expectations of future output are still close to two-year highs as firms anticipate the vaccine rollout and pent-up demand, and the pharmaceutical sector could still likely push up on output in Q1.