A new estimate suggests that the domestic economy here grew reasonably strongly in December, despite challenging conditions.
The “Nowcast”, produced by the Economic and Social Research Institute, predicts that Modified Domestic Demand (MDD) expanded by 3.7% in the month.
That is up from 2.5% estimated for November.
MDD is a measure of domestic economic activity including spending by households, investment by enterprises and net spending by the government.
“December saw strong growth in residential property prices as well as an increase in industrial production across several sectors compared to 12 months ago,” the ESRI said.
“On the other hand, the tightening of financial conditions relative to December 2022 put downward pressure on our monthly estimate,” it added.
Overall, the ESRI now forecasts that over the final three months of the year, MDD grew by 2.9% when compared to the final quarter of 2022.
The data is just an estimate though, with firm data due from the Central Statistics Office in the coming days.
Article Source – ESRI estimates strong MDD growth of 3.7% in December – RTE