The economy as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 1.2% between April and June when compared to the previous three months.
That is according to an early estimate from the Central Statistics Office, which shows that this growth was mainly driven by the multinational dominated industry sector.
When compared to the same quarter last year, GDP is estimated to have fallen by 1.4%.
Results for the first half of the year show that GDP dropped by 3.1% when compared to the first six months of 2023.
“The preliminary GDP estimates are based on forecasting and data sources that are limited in scope when compared with those used for compiling GDP in the CSO’s Quarterly National Accounts,” said Enda Behan, Statistician in the National Accounts Data Collection and Quality Division.
“The data sources include information from the CSO Large Cases Unit, Retail Sales, Administrative Payroll Data, and other indicators of activity,” he explained.
The preliminary results are subject to revisions in the Quarterly National Accounts release, which will be published in early September when additional data sources are available to the CSO.
GDP is not generally considered a great indicator of the underlying health of the Irish economy, because it includes distorting effects related to the activities of multinational firms.
Economists typically prefer to look at other measures such Modified Domestic Demand, which provide a more accurate picture of the of the performance of the domestic economy.
Article Source: Economy as measured by GDP grew by 1.2% in second quarter