Official figures show that manufacturing production in December last year was 5.3% lower than in the same month in 2008.
The figure for the final quarter of 2009 also showed a big drop, down 8.7% compared with the third quarter from July to September.
For December, production in the modern sector - which includes the technology and chemical industries - fell at an annual rate of 4.1%. The fall in the traditional manufacturing sector was 7.7%.
Provisional estimates for the whole of 2009 show that manufacturing production was down 1.8% from 2008, after a 2.2% drop in 2008.
