IT, accommodation and food firms buoy services activity in September, CSO says

Computing and accommodation and food firms boosted the performance of the services sector in September, the Central Statistics Office said.

Overall services rose in both value and volume terms in September, indicating that it is not just rising prices driving growth.

By value, services grew 1.1pc compared with August and 4pc compared to September 2022.

In volume terms, services grew 1.8pc compared with August and 2.7pc compared with September last year.

Information and communication services grew the fastest in volume terms, both in the month (up 2.5pc) and in the year (8.3pc), and also topped the sector in monthly value (up 3.3pc) terms.

But accommodation and food service activities were up by the most in annual value terms, rising 13.8pc compared to September 2022.

Transportation and storage services also recorded gains.

In the month from August to September, transport services rose 1.6pc in value terms but were broadly flat (falling 0.4pc) in volume terms.

Comparing year on year, transport and storage services were up 5.6pc in value and 3pc in volume terms.

Tommy Allen, a statistician in the CSO’s business statistics division, said there was a decrease in the other sectors surveyed.

Professional, scientific and technical activities — which include lawyers, accountants, advertisers and architects — saw some of the largest falls in both value and volume terms.

In value terms, they were down 4pc in September, compared to August this year and dropped 7.8pc compared to September last year. In volume terms they were down 4.2pc in the month and 8.9pc in the year.

Other service activities — which include real estate, sports activities and hairdressers — saw a significant fall in volume terms, year on year, dropping 9.8pc, the largest annual drop in activity recorded in volume terms.

There were also falls in volume and value for the wholesale and retail trade and administrative and support services.

The CSO surveys around 2,250 medium-sized firms for its monthly services index.

Last week, an AIB survey found that services activity slowed for the sixth month in a row, growing only slightly in October thanks mainly to an expansion by tech and finance firms.

Activity shrank in business services firms and transport, tourism and leisure companies.

However, the Irish services sector is bucking the trend in the rest of the eurozone and in the UK, where services are shrinking. Irish manufacturing, meanwhile, fell at its fastest rate in three moths in October as firms felt the pinch from lower export demand and rising interest rates.

Reporting On:www.independent.ie