Quarterly estimates of capacity utilisation in Ireland

Abstract

The present paper derives indices of capacity utilisation for the total transportable industries sector of the Irish economy and also for twelve sub-sectors. The indices estimated are based on the Wharton School linked-peaks method, a modified Wharton procedure and a deviation from trend approach. Capacity utilisation series are playing an increasingly important role in empirical work and the estimates for Ireland are presented in the hope that they will prove useful to other researchers on the Irish economy.