Business activity in Northern Ireland continued to outpace all other regions of the UK, according to a new report from Ulster Bank.
The lender’s monthly growth tracker, also known as the purchasing managers’ index (PMI), pointed to private sector activity increasing sharply in the north between July and August.
The survey, which is based on the feedback of 200 construction, services, manufacturing and retail firms, suggests manufacturing increased at the fastest pace in almost two-and-a-half years during August.
Activity in the all-important services sector was also well up last month, according to the report, while construction returned to growth territory.
Retail was the only sector to register a decline in activity last month.
The report, produced by S&P Global for Ulster Bank has now put Northern Ireland at the top of the business activity table of 12 UK regions for the third time in the past four months.
Sebastian Burnside, chief economist at Ulster Bank’s parent company, NatWest, said: “There was no sign of a let-up in the performance of the Northern Ireland private sector in August, with local firms continuing to outpace all other UK regions and nations in terms of output growth.”
The survey was carried out during a period of record low unemployment in the north, with the official rate falling to below 2% for the first time.
“The sustained spell of growth has encouraged firms to take on extra staff, and they did so to the largest degree since April 2023,” said Mr Burnside.
“Such has been the speed of the inflows of new business, however, that companies were unable to make any dent in their backlogs of work which continued to expand markedly.”
The economist said the latest survey pointed to a strong period for northern manufacturing, which posted sharper increases in production, new orders, employment and backlogs of work.
Despite input cost inflation registering at a six-month low, Northern Ireland’s inflation rate was the steepest of all UK regions covered by the report.
“Hiring across the private sector pushed up staff costs, while salaries for existing workers were also reportedly up,” continued the economist.
“One other thing to note was a first increase in new export orders in almost a year-and-a-half, in a sign that international sales are starting to join the party and provide a boost to overall growth.
“Local firms remained optimistic about the future, and looking at this set of data it’s not hard to see why.”