Seventy-two percent of the firms in manufacturing and 73 percent in mining were operating below capacity in the first four months of this year but for mining this was an improvement over the previous four month period ending December 1997, according to the latest business tendency survey by the Central Statistics Office. A total of 164 firms participated in the survey out of the 204 that had been approached. Firms in both sectors indicated that they were less optimistic about the general situation in their industries.
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