Press Statement

Preasráiteas

13 December 2018

Quarterly National Accounts and Balance of Payments results for Quarter 3 2018

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (Thursday 13 December 2018) published Quarterly National Accounts and Balance of Payments results for Quarter 3, 2018.

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

“Preliminary National Accounts results for Quarter 3, 2018 show an increase of 0.9% in GDP and an increase of 5.2% in GNP when we compare results with Quarter 2, 2018.

Across the larger sectors of the economy, Industry grew by 3.5% in volume terms in the quarter, while Information and Communication increased by 0.1%. In the domestically focused sectors, Construction increased by 3.5% and the Distribution, Transport, Hotels and Restaurants sector grew by 1.1%. The Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector recorded a decrease of 1.5% in the quarter.

Looking at expenditure in the economy, we see that:

• Exports of Goods and Services grew by 1.5% in the quarter, while growth of 7.1% in Imports of Goods and Services was driven by increased imports of aircraft by leasing companies
• Personal Consumption and Expenditure (PCE) rose by 1.0%. The domestically focused PCE indicator measures spending by individuals on goods and services and accounted for over 40% of all economic activity in Quarter 3, 2018
• Investment increased by 21.8%, largely due to the additional aircraft imports in the quarter
• As a result of the increased levels of investment, Total Domestic Demand - an aggregate of personal and government expenditure and spending on capital investment - increased by 7.3% in the quarter, where we see increased import activity by aircraft leasing companies
• In contrast, the Modified Domestic Demand (MDD) indicator decreased by 0.6% in the quarter. MDD is an indicator of domestic demand where globalisation effects such as trade in intellectual property products and trade in aircraft by leasing companies are excluded – an important indicator of underlying demand in Quarter 3, 2018

In the Balance of Payments results for Quarter 3, 2018, the Current Account recorded a surplus of €9.1 billion in flows with the rest of the world, compared with a surplus of €13.8 billion in Quarter 3, 2017. The change in the overall surplus was driven by a decrease of €2.6 billion in the Trade surplus and an increase of €2.0 billion in the Income deficit.

Today’s Balance of Payments release includes a table of Current Account transactions with the UK. The results show a surplus of €2.5 billion for trade in goods and services with the UK in the third quarter of 2018. The trade surplus was offset by a deficit of €3.4 billion for income flows with the UK, giving an overall Current Account deficit of €0.9 billion in the quarter. “

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