Ireland’s economy grew by more than 3 per cent in the summer and early autumn compared with the same period in 2013, but annualised growth lost some of the momentum seen earlier in the year.
Data released this morning in Dublin by the Central Statistics Office state that gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2014 accelerated by 3.5 per cent year-on-year while gross national product (GNP) advanced by 2.5 per cent.
“Preliminary estimates for the third quarter of 2014 indicate that GDP remained practically unchanged on a seasonally adjusted basis compared with the second quarter of 2014 while GNP increased by 0.5 per cent over the same period,” the CSO said.
As the recovery broadens, these figures follow a long line of upgrades in growth forecasts for the Irish economy this year and next. GDP was shown in second-quarter data to have expanded by 7.7 per cent year-on-year and GNP by 9 per cent.
Adjusted for seasonal factors, the new CSO data show that GDP grew 0.1 per cent in July-September compared with the previous quarter. It is GDP figures which form the basis for key budget calculations.
GNP, which strips out the impact of multinational profit flows, advanced by 0.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
The latest figures indicate that GDP grew by 4.9 per cent in the first nine months of the year, while GNP increased by 3.5 per cent.
The previous set of CSO figures, which showed that GDP grew 1.5 per cent in April-June and GNP by 0.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter, marked a turning point in Ireland’s recovery as the economy was shown to be expanding this year at the fastest rate since the early 2000s.
The last set of figures also indicated the recovery was shifting into a different gear, with domestic demand picking up after a prolonged slump as the rapid expansion multinational activity continued.
Budget 2015 is predicated on GDP growth of 4.7 per cent in 2014 and growth of 3.9 per cent in 2015. As recently as April, the Department of Finance was forecasting 2.1 per cent growth this year.
