THE north's pharmaceutical sector, which includes companies like Almac and Norbrook, has enjoyed a record last quarter, government figures reveal.
The sector's output is running at an all-time high, up 11 per cent on this time last year, after having almost doubled in the last decade.
There was double digit growth over the quarter too for sectors like metal products and textiles.
But in the dominant services sector, which takes in hospitality, retail and professions like law and accountancy, there was a 0.4 per cent decline in Northern Ireland.
The data from the NI Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA) show that in the year to March, overall output grew locally by 0.7 per cent in services (versus 2 per cent for the UK overall) and by 2.3 per cent in production sector (set against just 0.6 per cent UK growth).
Ulster University senior economist Dr Esmond Birnie says the data paints a mixed picture on the health of the region's economy, though while indicating some challenges, they are not all gloomy.
"Some care is necessary in terms of interpretation," he said, "and it would probably be a mistake to dismiss the growth in the first quarter as simply a temporary increase in stocks as businesses prepared for what was meant to be Brexit day on March 29.
"Taking a longer term view (these statistics go back to 2009), it is notable that recovery in the services sector was very slow after the 2008-9 recession.
"Over the last quarter and, indeed the last year, it is clear that some parts of services are in the doldrums (retail for example) but other parts (business and financial) are putting on reasonable growth."
He added: "In terms of the production sectors, there is no clear upward trend over the last decade or so, which is concerning.
"It's true that some parts of manufacturing like chemicals and pharma showed very strong growth in the quarter, but other sub-sectors like engineering have been in decline since 2018. Also, recently output has dropped in the transport and storage sector, which would be hard to reconcile with an increase in stocks."
