GNI*, a key deglobalised measure of Ireland’s economic performance, expanded by 6.7% in 2022.
Personal spending on goods and services, a key measure of domestic economic activity, increased by 9.4% in the year, reflecting a continued recovery following the ending of COVID-19-related restrictions on household spending in 2020 and 2021.
Modified Domestic Demand, a broad measure of underlying domestic activity that covers personal, government and investment spending, rose by 9.5% in 2022.
Multinational-dominated sectors grew by 15.6% in 2022 with all other sectors increasing by 5.6%.
Exports grew by 13.9% in 2022 while higher goods and royalty imports drove growth of 15.9% in overall imports.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (14 July 2023) published the Annual National Accounts (ANA) results for the year 2022.
Assistant Director General with responsibility for Economic Statistics, Jennifer Banim, commented:
"In the Annual National Accounts results, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated to have grown by 9.4% in 2022, driven by a 13.9% increase in Exports of Goods & Services. Gross National Product (GNP) – a measure of economic activity that excludes the profits of multi-nationals – grew by 3.9% in the year. Increased multi-national profit outflows of €28.4 billion in 2022 compared with 2021 caused the divergence between GDP and GNP in the year.
The ending of COVID-19-related restrictions led to higher levels of economic activity in 2022 for many of the sectors focused on the domestic market. The Distribution, Transport, Hotels & Restaurants sector increased by 16.9% in the year, with Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries up by 6.3%, while Construction and Real Estate Activities both posted growth of 4.2%. However, the Finance & Insurance sector contracted by 7.8%.
Growth in the globalised Industry (excl. Construction) sector expanded by 18.7% in 2022 compared with 2021 while the Information & Communication sector increased by 7.1% in the year. Overall, the multinational dominated sector growth was 15.6% and in 2022, these sectors accounted for 54.2% of total value added in the economy, compared with a 51.9% share in 2021.
Looking at expenditure in the economy, personal spending on goods and services (the PCE indicator) rose by 9.4% in 2022, reflecting the ending of COVID-19-related restrictions on consumer spending. Government spending on goods and services increased by 3.5% in the year. Examining PCE constant price levels over the past three years, personal spending reached €124.8 billion in 2022, exceeding the €116.8 billion pre-pandemic peak level of spending in 2019 by 6.8%. PCE accounted for 26.3% of GDP in 2022, unchanged compared with 2021 but down from 27.9% of GDP in 2020 and 33.0% in 2019.”
Commenting on the impact of globalisation and the indicators of underlying domestic activity, Ms. Banim 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 6.7% in 2022. Today’s results show the transition in current prices from a GDP level of €506.3 billion in 2022 to a GNI* level of €273.1 billion. They also tell us that Ireland’s GDP exceeded €0.5 trillion for the first time in 2022.
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 €241.7 billion in current prices in 2022. Between 2021 and 2022, NNI at constant prices rose by 4.2%.
Modified Domestic Demand (MDD) – a modified measure of personal, government and investment spending – increased by 17.5% at current prices and 9.5% in real terms in 2022. 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."
More commentary is available in the Press Release also issued today. This includes commentary on the updated Quarterly National Accounts and International Accounts for Quarter 1 2023 which are also published today.