Irish economy recovering strongly



The Republic of Ireland’s domestic economy recovered strongly in the first quarter of 2023, official data suggests.

Output, as measured by modified domestic demand (MDD), expanded by 2.7% compared to the final quarter of 2022.

It had fallen in the third and fourth quarters of last year as the impact of inflation hit the economy.

However gross domestic product (GDP), a measure which is heavily distorted in Ireland by the activities of US multinational companies, contracted by 4.6% in the first quarter.

That means that on the GDP measurement Ireland is technically considered to be in a recession.

In 2017 Ireland’s statistical agency, the CSO, acknowledged that GDP and GNP (gross national product) had become so distorted that they no longer provided a sufficient understanding of the country’s domestic economy.

They developed new measurements: MDD and modified gross national income.

CSO assistant director general Jennifer Banim said GDP had fallen because of a sharp decline in the output of the globalised industrial sector, which is dominated by pharmaceuticals.

‘Extremely volatile’

Finance Minister Michael McGrath said multinational production can be “extremely volatile on a quarterly basis, with large swings a pattern of recent years”.

He added that “given the outsized role the multinational sector plays in our economy, GDP is clearly not a useful measure of the living standards of domestic residents”.

Mr McGrath said the “strong increase” in domestic demand was broad based and that incoming data suggested momentum has continued into the second quarter of the year.

Earlier this week official figures confirmed the country’s unemployment rate was at a record low of 3.8% in May.

Mr McGrath said the economy is “now clearly at full employment” and it is important that the upcoming budget is “calibrated so as to avoid adding to inflation”.





Source link


Like it? Share with your friends!

What's Your Reaction?

hate hate
0
hate
confused confused
0
confused
fail fail
0
fail
fun fun
0
fun
geeky geeky
0
geeky
love love
0
love
lol lol
0
lol
omg omg
0
omg
win win
0
win
Administrator

0 Comments

Your email address will not be published.

Choose A Format
Personality quiz
Series of questions that intends to reveal something about the personality
Trivia quiz
Series of questions with right and wrong answers that intends to check knowledge
Poll
Voting to make decisions or determine opinions
Story
Formatted Text with Embeds and Visuals
List
The Classic Internet Listicles
Countdown
The Classic Internet Countdowns
Open List
Submit your own item and vote up for the best submission
Ranked List
Upvote or downvote to decide the best list item
Meme
Upload your own images to make custom memes
Video
Youtube and Vimeo Embeds
Audio
Soundcloud or Mixcloud Embeds
Image
Photo or GIF
Gif
GIF format