Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 7.4% in Quarter 1 (Q1) 2025 (See Editor’s Note below).
Multinational-dominated sectors grew by 13.6% in Q1 2025 with Domestic sectors largely flat.
Total Exports expanded by 9.6% in the first three months of 2025 (+€19.2 billion), with Goods Exports increasing by 18.3% (+€16.4 billion).
Modified Domestic Demand (MDD), a broad measure of underlying domestic activity that covers personal, government, and investment spending, grew by 2.0% in Q1 2025.
Personal spending on goods and services, a key measure of domestic economic activity, grew by 0.3% in Q1 2025.
The Balance of Payments Current Account recorded a surplus of €5.8 billion in transactions with the rest of the world in Q1 2025.
Please Note following an update to the quarterly Seasonal Adjustment process additivity no longer holds for Seasonally Adjusted Chain Linked aggregates compared with the sum of the Seasonally Adjusted Chain Linked components in this publication. Seasonally Adjusted backdata have been revised on foot of this update but also due to routine revisions. Recent reference quarters are unaffected arising from the process update, its impact is significant for the back data quarters of 2011 and prior. Further details on this change can be found in Background Notes.
The updated estimated GDP figure for Q1 2025 is +7.4%. This compares with a Preliminary GDP Estimate for Q1 2025 of +3.2% published on 29 April 2025 and the QNA Q1 Provisional estimate of 9.7% published on 05 June 2025. The reason for the revision is that the updated GDP estimate for Q1 2025 of +7.4% includes new information including data published today in the Annual National Accounts 2024 (ANA2024) in particular for Government expenditure, Imports, and sectors including Information & Communication, Professional & Administrative services and Financial & Insurance Activities. In addition, updated information on prices including a full implementation of the rebased WPI series was incorporated.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (08 July 2025) published Quarterly National Accounts and International Accounts results for Quarter 1 (Q1) 2025, following on from the QNA Q1 2025 Provisional issued on 05 June 2025 (See Editor’s Note below).
Summary Results
Assistant Director General with responsibility for National Accounts & Price Statistics, Chris Sibley, said:
"In today’s release, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated to have grown by 7.4% in January, February, and March (Q1) 2025 driven by significant growth in exports of goods.
The globalised Industry sector expanded by 16.5% in Q1 2025 compared with Q4 2024 while the Information & Communication sector posted an increase of 0.5% over the same period. Overall, the multinational-dominated sector rose 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% in the first three months of the year while personal spending increased by 0.3% over the same period.”
More detailed analysis of the results is available in the Quarterly National Accounts and International Accounts Quarter 1 2025 Final statistical release.
Domestic Economy
Looking at the results in more detail, National Accounts Statistician Gordon Cavanagh said:
“Overall, the sectors focused on the domestic market were flat in the quarter. There was a notable increase of 7.9% for the Construction sector, more modest growth was seen in the Professional & Administrative Services sector, which increased by 1.7%, while Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing contracted by 5.1%.
Expenditure in the Economy
Looking at expenditure in the economy, exports increased by 9.6% in Q1 2025, largely driven by a significant increase in goods exports to the Extra-EU area. Imports rose by 14.0% over the same period. As a result, net exports declined by 0.2% in the quarter. Capital Investment rose by 49.1% or €12.7bn compared with Q4 2024 and this reflects higher levels of investment in Intangible Assets. Personal spending on goods and services (the PCE indicator) increased by 0.3% in Q1 2025, while Government spending on goods and services fell by 1.3% over the same period.
Impact of Globalisation Activities and the Indicators of Underlying Domestic Activity
Final Domestic Demand (FDD), a measure of personal, government, and investment spending, increased by 22.3% in Q1 2025. This reflects higher levels of investment in Intangible Assets compared with the previous quarter. Modified Domestic Demand, a broad measure of underlying domestic demand that excludes IPP and aircraft-related globalisation effects, increased by 2.0% in the quarter.
Compensation of Employees
Compensation of Employees (CoE) decreased in real terms by 1.3% in Q1 2025 compared with Q4 2024. There was a mixed picture across sectors with the largest increases seen in Real Estate Activities (+15.0%), Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing (+9.8%) and Arts & Entertainment (+4.1%). Many sectors saw declines including Distribution, Transport, Hotels & Restaurants (-3.2%), Industry (-2.9%) and Public Administration, Education & Health (-2.6%).
GDP and GNP results
Overall, GDP is estimated to have grown by 7.4% in Q1 2025, driven significantly by a rise of 9.6% in Exports. Gross National Product (GNP), a measure of economic activity that excludes the profits of multinationals, decreased by 7.2% in the quarter, reflecting a significant increase in factor income outflows which rose by 40.9%.”