GNI*, a key deglobalized measure of Ireland’s economic performance, expanded by 4.8% in 2024.
Personal spending on goods and services, a key measure of domestic economic activity, increased by 2.9% in the year.
Modified Domestic Demand (MDD), a broad measure of underlying domestic activity that covers personal, government and investment spending, rose by 1.8% in 2024.
Domestic-dominated sectors expanded by 3.6% in 2024 while multinational-dominated sectors increased by 1.5%.
Total Exports grew by 8.6% in 2024 driven by an increase in Services Exports of 10.9% while Total Imports grew by 2.7%.
In the Balance of Payments results, a Current Account surplus of €91.0 billion was recorded in 2024 while the modified Current Account balance (CA*) – which excludes globalisation effects – recorded a surplus of €25.1 billion, or 4.5% of GDP.
For Quarter 1 2025, the updated estimate for GDP indicates an increase of 7.4%, with Modified Domestic Demand rising by 2.0%.
| Kieran Culhane | (+353) 1 498 4364 |
|---|---|
| John Sheridan | (+353) 1 498 4258 |
| nat_acc@cso.ie | |
| bop@cso.ie |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (08 July 2025) published updated Quarterly National Accounts and International Accounts results for Quarter 1 (Q1) 2025 and Annual National Accounts (ANA) results for the year 2024. Today’s results include revisions routinely incorporated at this time as more comprehensive and detailed data are available.
Assistant Director General with responsibility for National Accounts & Price Statistics, Chris Sibley, commented:
“In the Annual National Accounts results, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has expanded by 2.6% in 2024, driven by a 3.6% increase in domestic-dominated sectors.
The globalised Industry sector contracted by 0.5% in 2024 when compared with 2023, the second consecutive year of contraction in the sector. The Information & Communication sector continued to grow however, increasing by 6.2% in the year. Overall, the multinational-dominated sector expanded by 1.5% in 2024 and accounted for 47.0% of total value added in the economy.
There were higher levels of economic activity for most sectors focused on the domestic market in 2024 including the Financial & Insurance sector which expanded by 16.1%, Real Estate Activities which increased by 6.0%, and Professional & Administrative Services which grew by 2.5%. The only domestic dominated sector to contract was Arts & Entertainment which fell by 5.8% in the year.
Looking at expenditure in the economy, personal spending on goods and services (the PCE indicator) rose by 2.9% in 2024, while Government spending on goods and services increased by 5.3% in the year. There was robust export growth of 8.6% recorded while imports grew by just 2.7% which meant net exports increased by 26.7%. However, there was a sharp contraction in capital investment of 29.5% reflecting the lowest level of investment in Intangible Assets since 2014.”
Commenting on the impact of globalisation and the indicators of underlying domestic activity, Chris Sibley said:
“Today’s results include estimates for GNI*, the indicator designed to exclude globalisation effects disproportionately impacting Irish economic results. In constant prices, GNI* expanded by 4.8% in 2024. Today’s results show the transition in current prices from a GDP level of €562.8 billion in 2024 to a GNI* level of €321.1 billion.
Net National Income (NNI), an important internationally comparable indicator of underlying or de-globalised activity from the National Accounts framework that closely mirrors the GNI* series, stood at €287.9 billion in current prices in 2024. Between 2023 and 2024, NNI at constant prices rose by 4.5%.
Modified Domestic Demand (MDD) – a modified measure of personal, government, and investment spending – increased by 1.8% in 2024. MDD is an important measure of underlying demand and excludes the globalisation effects of trade in intellectual property products (IPP) and trade in aircraft by leasing companies from the standard Final Domestic Demand measure.
In International Accounts results, the Current Account of the Balance of Payments recorded a surplus of €91.0 billion in flows with the rest of the world in 2024, an improvement of €54.1 billion compared with the surplus of €36.9 billion in 2023. This was driven to a significant degree by increased Services Exports. The improvement of €41.1 billion in the Services balance between 2023 and 2024 largely reflects increased Computer Services Exports of €44.5 billion and increased R&D Exports of €22.1 billion. In comparison, the modified Current Account balance, or CA*, which excludes the impact of re-domiciled companies, aircraft leasing companies, and intellectual property products, recorded a surplus of €25.1 billion in the year. Multinational profit net outflows were €129.0 billion in the year, a fall of €9.0 billion on 2023 levels.”
On the revised Quarter 1 2025 results, Chris Sibley further commented:
“Updated results for January, February, and March (Q1) 2025 show GDP expanded by 7.4% compared with Quarter 4 (Q4) 2024. The updated result of 7.4% compares with a provisional estimate of 9.7% provided in June.
The globalised Industry sector expanded by 16.5% in Q1 2025 while the Information & Communication sector posted an increase of 0.5% over the same period. Overall, the multinational-dominated sectors of the economy expanded by 13.6% in the quarter. There was continued growth in the domestic economy in Q1 2025 with Modified Domestic Demand (MDD) growing by 2.0% and personal spending increased by 0.3% compared with Q4 2024.”