The Irish economy slowed dramatically in the second quarter of 2001 according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Gross National Product (GNP) which includes capital flows from Irish operations overseas and repatriated profits from multi nationals out of the country, rose by only 1.6 per cent on the same quarter of 2000. This was very much lower than the 11 per cent annual growth recorded in the first quarter of the year.
However the CSO noted that the level of GNP was particularly high in the second quarter of 2000, when the growth in GNP exceeded that of GDP. GNP is affected by the timing of income flows with the rest of the world.
The annual rates of increase in both exports and imports also slowed considerably in the second quarter. Exports were 12.5 per cent higher while imports were up 2.6 per cent.
This compares with respective increases of 22 per cent and 21.5 per cent in the first quarter.