Macroeconomic Scoreboard 2015

Source Publication: National Income and Expenditure Annual Results

Get the data: Eurostat database

Ireland’s GDP growth rates are shown in Figure 41. The change in trend during 2008-2009 of a declining GDP growth rate reflects the economic downturn during this period. Ireland experienced increasing GDP growth rates from 2013 to 2015. The substantial jump in GDP in 2015 is mostly due to the relocation of large multinational companies to Ireland in particular where their net exports are now from their Irish owned enterprises.

Supplementary analysis:

Get the data: Eurostat database

Figure 42 compares GDP growth rates between countries. Ireland’s 2015 GDP growth rate was the highest in the EU. Further information from Ireland’s Economic Statistics Review Group can be found here.

^{*Due to individual chain linkages these values do not add up exactly to total GDP growth rates. Values for components are at factor cost. Adding taxes less subsidies provides market costs.}

Source Publication: National Income and Expenditure Annual Results

Get the data: StatBank N1504

Many sectors, such as industry, have tended to expand and contract in line with positive and negative overall growth. However, some have not. Building and construction continually fell in size from 2008 to 2012, with very little increase from 2013 to 2015.

Indicator A2: Net Lending/Borrowing (% of GDP)

^{*Note there are some small differences between the CSO/Eurostat Current Account Balance values for 2008-2011 related to data vintages.}

Source Publication: Balance of International Payments

Get the data: Eurostat database

Net lending/borrowing of a country corresponds to the sum of total current and capital accounts’ balances in the balance of payments. It represents the net resources that the total economy makes available to the rest of the world (if it is positive, i.e. net lending) or receives from the rest of the world (if it is negative, i.e. net borrowing).

Figure 44 shows the current and capital accounts balance as a percentage of GDP for Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. Ireland experienced net borrowing from 2006 to 2012, with the highest amounts in 2007 and 2008, during the financial crisis. In 2015 there was a large increase in the current account balance related to corporate restructuring, both for imports of individual assets and also reclassifications of entire balance sheets. It was mainly driven by the Non-financial Corporations sector (Figure 45).

Supplementary analysis:

Source Publication: Institutional Sector Accounts Non-Financial and Financial

Get the data: StatBank ISA04

Figure 45 shows the net lending/borrowing indicator for each sector expressed in billions of Euro. Notably in 2010, the Government sector was a large net borrower while the financial sector was a large net lender. This was driven by state interventions in the banking sector following the financial crisis. Government net borrowing has fallen steadily from its 2010 peak of €53.7bn and has declined by €49.0bn during the ensuing period.

Indicator A3: Residential Construction (% of GDP)

Get the data: Eurostat database

This measure refers to the percentage of GDP spent on construction of housing.¹ Residential construction in Ireland fell even more sharply than Greece and Spain until its recovery in 2013. However, it has still remained very low relative to its peak and to some of its major trading partners.

Supplementary analysis:

Get the data: Eurostat database

Ireland had the fifth lowest share of residential construction in Europe as a percentage of GDP in 2015.

Indicator A4: People at Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion (% of Population)

Get the data: Eurostat database

Ireland has had a higher than average risk of poverty or social exclusion compared to three of its major European trading partners. This rate increased between 2008 and 2012 and has fallen since. It is important to note that this is a relative measure. 

Indicator A5: At Risk of Poverty Rate after Social Transfer (% of Population)

Get the data: Eurostat database

In contrast to the previous measure, Ireland has had a relatively low at risk of poverty rate once social transfers are taken into account compared to some of its major trading partners and the euro area countries.²

Supplementary analysis:

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Ireland had the seventeenth lowest poverty rate after social transfer in the EU in 2015. 

Indicator A6: Severely Materially Deprived People (% of Population)

Get the data: Eurostat database

Compared to its major trading partners, Ireland has a large number of severely materially deprived people. Severe material deprivation is an absolute measure of poverty, where people have living conditions severely constrained by a lack of resources.

Supplementary analysis:

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Ireland was the fifteenth least materially deprived country in the EU in 2015.

Indicator A7: People Living in Households with Very Low Work Intensity (% of Total Population Under 60)

Get the data: Eurostat database

This indicator measures people living in households with very low work intensity are people aged 0-59 living in households where the adults (aged 18-59) worked less than 20% of their total work potential during the past year (students are excluded).

Ireland has tended to have a higher rate of people living in households with very low work intensity than three of its major trading partners since 2005.

^{*People living in households with very low work intensity are people aged 0-59 living in households where the adults (aged 18-59) worked less than 20 percent of their total work potential during the past year. Students are excluded.}

Get the data: Eurostat database

Ireland had the highest rate of people living in very low work intensity households in 2015 compared to other EU countries.

Indicator A8: Labour Productivity

Get the data: Eurostat database

This indicator shows year-on-year percentage change in real labour productivity. Change in productivity remained low for most of the years up to 2014 with the exception of 2010. In 2015 however, a marked level increase in productivity is seen which can be attributed to the high growth recorded. More information on this high GDP growth observed can be found here.

Ireland surpassed other EU countries in labour productivity in 2015.

Indicator A9: Foreign Direct Investment Flows (% of GDP)

Get the data: OECD

Figures 57 and 58 display inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), as a proportion of the reporting country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which can be interpreted as an indication of the extent of globalisation of an economy.

The data presented in Figure 57 shows flows in 2015, suggests that Ireland was one of the most globalised countries in the world in that year.

Indicator A10: Foreign Direct Investment Stocks (% of GDP)

The figure shows that Ireland was not only an extremely globalised economy in 2015, but accumulated a stock of foreign direct investments before 2015.

Indicator A11: Financial Sector Leverage (non-consolidated)

Source publication: Institutional Sector Accounts Non-Financial and Financial

Get the data: StatBank IFI03

The Financial sector leverage (debt-to-equity ratio) indicator shows the relative proportion of debt used to finance assets to shareholders' equity (Figure 59). It is defined for balance sheet liabilities as the ratio of the sum of Currency and deposits, Debt securities, Loans and Financial derivatives and employee stock options to Equity and investment fund shares. It is closely related to Headline Indicator 11 – Change in Total Financial Sector Liabilities.

Since 2009 there has been a reduction in the Financial Sector debt-to-equity ratio mainly driven by the growth of the Investment Funds sector and the deleveraging of the banking sector. Since 2013 the structure of the balance sheet of the Financial sector has evolved such that the leverage ratio has fallen below 100% resulting from more equity than debt in the sector.