Minister issues health warning over economic outlook

ECONOMY MINISTER Sir Reg Empey has described the prospects for the Northern Ireland economy as reasonably good, despite a number of recent setbacks, but cautioned against complacency in the face of political uncertainty.

The Minister was commenting on the publication of the latest set of labour market and manufacturing output statistics which were published on Wednesday 18 July.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stands at 6.2% for the period March-May 2001, or 47,000 persons unemployed according to the internationally agreed definition of unemployment.

The Minister said: "New data on employment and manufacturing output has indicated that good progress has been made. However, in relation to unemployment the message is that we could do better, in particular, in tackling long-term unemployment which still stands at 20,000.

"Figures on manufacturing output for the first quarter of the year show an increase of 2.3% on the previous quarter, and an increase of 8.1% on the same period last year. Northern Ireland compares favourably with the UK as a whole, where manufacturing output decreased by 0.7% on the quarter, and increased by 1.2% over the year."

Commenting on the unemployment statistics the Minister said: "News on unemployment levels is mixed. It is disappointing to see that the seasonally adjusted unemployment estimates for the period March to May 2001 show that there has been a rise of 1,000 over the quarter. However, unemployment levels are still down 1% from last year’s figures.

"While the economy has been making good progress, a health warning must be sounded. There are still over 2,000 redundancies in the pipeline mainly in the technology and textile sectors but it is too early for these to be recorded in the statistics. In addition, the economy is unlikely to remain immune from the effects of the current political uncertainty and the impact of international market forces." (CL)