Press Statement

Preasráiteas

13 September 2018

GDP increased by 2.5% in the second quarter of 2018

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (Thursday, 13 September 2018) published Quarterly National Accounts and Balance of Payments results for Quarter 2, 2018.

Assistant Director General with responsibility for Economic Statistics, Jennifer Banim, commented:

“Preliminary National Accounts results for Quarter 2, 2018 show an increase of 2.5% in GDP and an increase of 0.7% in GNP when we compare with Quarter 1, 2018. Across the larger sectors of the economy, Information and Communication grew by 11.9% in the quarter, while Industry increased by 5.3% in volume terms. In the domestically focused sectors, Distribution, Transport, Hotels and Restaurants increased by 3.9%, while the Construction sector grew by 3.2%. The Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector recorded a decrease of 3.4% in the quarter.

Looking at the economy from an expenditure perspective for the second quarter of 2018, we see that:

• Personal consumption of goods and services (a measure of spending by individuals on goods and services and accounting for almost a third of the economy in the quarter) rose by 1.5%
• Capital formation decreased by 1.4% in the quarter, due to lower levels of expenditure on Machinery and Equipment and on intellectual property products (IPP)
• Total Domestic Demand, an aggregate of personal and government expenditure and capital formation, decreased by 1.6% in the quarter, driven by the decrease in capital formation. In contrast, Modified Domestic Demand (an indicator of domestic demand where we remove globalisation effects such as trade in IPP) recorded an increase of 0.4%
• Exports of Goods and Services grew by 5.9%, driving the overall growth in GDP in the quarter, while Imports of Goods and Services increased by 0.3%

In Balance of Payments results for Quarter 2, 2018, the Current Account recorded a surplus of €10.2 billion in flows with the rest of the world, compared to a deficit of €3.3 billion in Quarter 2, 2017. The growth in the surplus was driven by an increase of €5.4 billion in the Merchandise surplus and an improvement of €7.7 billion in the Services deficit.

Today’s Balance of Payments release includes a table of Current Account transactions with the UK and shows a surplus of €2.0 billion for trade in goods and services with the UK in the second quarter of 2018. This trade surplus was offset by a deficit of €4.1 billion for income flows with the UK in the quarter to give an overall Current Account deficit of €2.0 billion. “

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