Measuring Ireland's Economy: Value of Output was €607 billion in 2017

This publication presents Gross Value Added (GVA), a measure of economic activity, for the years 1995 to 2017 as estimated using the Output method (also known as the Production Approach). The Output method is one of three ways in which GVA and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can be calculated. Aggregates describing GVA as calculated by the Income method are also provided for reference and comparison purposes. All aggregates in this release are consistent with those presented in the latest National Income and Expenditure (NIE) publication which was produced using the Income method and the Expenditure method, the other two methods of estimating GVA and GDP.

This publication is the first step in an incremental process to incorporate the Output method into the Irish National Accounts alongside the Income and Expenditure methods. The NACE Rev. 2 industry sectoral classification is used in this publication for 64 industry groups (A64), 21 industry groups (A21) or 10 industry groups (A10) as appropriate for both presentation and confidentiality purposes. The composition of the A64 group is displayed in Table 1.2 below. The composition of the A21 and A10 groups are described in the relevant tables and charts and in more detail in the Background Notes Chapter of this publication.

In 2017, Output (the value of all goods and services produced) at basic prices for the total economy was €606.8 billion. The Intermediate Consumption required to produce this Output totalled €330.8 billion. Output (€606.8 billion) minus Intermediate Consumption (€330.8 billion) resulted in Gross Value Added at basic prices of €275.9 billion. The constituents of Output at basic prices in 2017 were:

Service industries (NACE 45-99) at €346.8 billion (57.2% of the total)
Production industries (NACE 5-39) at €223.3 billion (36.8%)
Construction (NACE 41-43) at €24.4 billion (4.0%)
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (NACE 1-3) at €12.2 billion (2.0%).                  

It is planned to integrate this Output method approach into the existing National Accounts compilation process. Pending the full incorporation and integration of the Income, Expenditure and Output approaches, detailed sectoral estimates using the Output method should be considered as exploratory and transitional, particularly for the latest two years (2016 and 2017). Data in this publication are expressed in current prices only. The NIE statistical discrepancy is excluded and the data are consistent with the unadjusted Income method by industry, as described in the NIE.

Further details, including definitions and methodology, are provided in the Background Notes Chapter.

The Output method 1995-2017 time-series is provided in the CSO's StatBank database.

In addition to the Irish data, comparable data from across EU Member States are provided for reference purposes. These data are sourced from the Eurostat database.

Users should note that these Output method data are presented from a National Accounts compilation perspective. Output and Value Added along with the Income method components of GVA/GDP are shown by sector. However, these figures do not take account of changes in employment numbers and consequently should not be used as proxies for comparisons of productivity or wage rates by sector. Output and Value Added data are a starting point for such analysis when used in combination with additional, relevant data.

Structure of this publication              

In addition to the main table (Table 1.2) presented at A64, this publication is structured into six distinct themes. These are:      

Theme 1 - Output       

Theme 2 - Intermediate Consumption 

Theme 3 - Gross Value Added (GVA)              

In the Output method, GVA equals Output minus Intermediate consumption. 

Three additional themes (using Income method data) show the main components of GVA:         

Theme 4 - Compensation of Employees (COE)      

Theme 5 - Net Operating Surplus (NOS)           

Theme 6 - Consumption of Fixed Capital (CFC)            

In the Income method, GVA equals COE plus NOS plus CFC plus net Non-product taxes (also known as Other taxes on production). 

In 2017, Non-product taxes were €3.215 billion, while Non-product subsidies were €2.361 billion, resulting in Net non-product taxes of €0.854 billion. Because of this small size relative to the other components of the Income method, the inclusion of a similarly detailed theme for this item was considered unnecessary. See Table 1.2, the Background Notes and NIE items 30 and 31 for further details on Non-product taxes and subsidies.  

These six themes have a general, repeated, structure. For each of the six themes the structure is as follows:       

Proportional composition time-series by A21, graphs           

Value time-series by A21, table

Proportional ranking time-series by A21, table                     

EU Member State comparison by A10, 2017, table            

Cross-cutting time-series by selected EU member states, graph           

Manufacturing comparison of EU member states, 2017, graph   

The proportional ranking tables and proportional composition graphs allow us to see the relative contributions of different sectors to the economy as a whole for each item across the years 1995 to 2017.

These tables and graphs allow us to look at contributions of different sectors across time. For example, if we look at the Construction (F) sector we can see that it contributed 5.9% of all GVA in 1995 rising to 9.8% in 2005. By 2010 it had decreased to contributing 1.5% but has increased since then and contributed 2.5% in 2017.

These tables and graphs also allow us to examine how different sectors contribute to different items in different ways. For example, the Wholesale and Retail Trade (G) sector contributed 7.8% of all GVA in 2017 and contributed 12.0% of all COE in the same year. The Information and Communication (J) sector contributed 10.3% of all GVA in 2017 and contributed 7.1% of all COE in the same year.                   

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