The industrial production index fell 1.5% in the first quarter from a year earlier, following a 1.4% year-on-year fall in the fourth quarter of 2006, the Census & Statistics Department says.

The producer price index rose 2.5% in the first quarter from a year earlier, higher than the 2% year-on-year rise in the fourth quarter of 2004.

Compared with a year earlier, the apparel (except footwear) industry saw the largest fall in output (-26.5%), followed by the electrical and electronic products, machinery, professional equipment and optical goods industry (-13.9%), and the textiles (including knitting) industry (-3.5%).

Output increases were recorded in the chemical, rubber, plastic and non-metallic mineral products industry (14.8%), the food, beverages and tobacco industry (14.3%), the basic metals and fabricated metal products industry (9.1%), and the paper products and printing industry (1.6%).

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, the index of industrial production for the manufacturing sector as a whole rose 0.4%.

Comparing the first quarter of 2007 with a year earlier, the plastic products industry has had the largest increase in producer prices (8%), followed by the fabricated metal products (except machinery and equipment) industry (4.5%), the machinery, equipment, apparatus, parts and components industry (3.4%), the textiles (including knitting) industry (1.4%), the paper products and printing industry (1.2%), and the wearing apparel (except footwear) industry (0.1%).

Producer prices in the consumer electrical and electronic products industry fell 1.1%.