National Income and Expenditure 2019

GDP Increased by 5.6% in 2019

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 5.6% in 2019 while Gross National Product (GNP) rose by 3.4%. These results are broadly in line with the preliminary estimates published in March 2020 which showed GDP increasing by 5.5% and GNP increasing by 3.3%. The estimates in this release use more complete data than were available for the Q4 2019 estimates. These results are compiled in accordance with the latest EU standard framework, ESA 2010.

For more information on our main aggregates go to Main Aggregates.

Expenditure

On the expenditure (Expenditure) side of the accounts, exports remained strong in 2019 with growth of 10.5% recorded. Imports increased by 32.4% largely driven by imports of intellectual property. 

On the domestic side of the economy, headline investment increased by 74.8% in 2019. This is predominantly due to an increase in purchases of intellectual property with Research and Development up 169.4% going from €39.8bn to €107.3bn. These transactions are GDP neutral because of an offsetting increase in imports. 

For more information see Capital Formation.

Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE), a measure of consumer spending on goods and services, rose by 3.2% in 2019. Large contributions to growth came from Miscellaneous goods and services (+3.8%) and Expenditure outside the state (+14.9%). This release also includes a downward revision to PCE in 2018 with growth of 2.8% now estimated. This revision reflects the incorporation of new data not available at the time of the National Income and Expenditure results for 2018. Regarding government consumption, Net expenditure by central and local government on current goods and services rose by 6.3%.

For more information on PCE go to Personal Consumption Expenditure.

Gross Value Added

All of the sectors of the economy distinguished in Table 4 (Net and Gross Value Added) recorded growth. Construction saw Gross Value Added (GVA) increasing by 7.5% while Information and Communication increased by 17.2%.

Modified GNI 

Modified Gross National Income (GNI*) at current market prices increased by 7.6% rising from €198.7bn to €213.7bn, whereas GNI at current market prices increased by 7.0% rising from €257.5bn to €275.5bn.

Modified GNI is an indicator recommended by the Economic Statistics Review Group and is designed to exclude globalisation effects that are disproportionally impacting the measurement of the Irish economy.

To produce Modified GNI we take GNI and adjust for:

• Factor income of redomiciled companies
• Depreciation on R&D service imports and trade in intellectual property (IP)
• Depreciation on aircraft leasing

For more details go to Modified Gross National Income.

Which parts of the Economy are contributing to our growth?

Industry excluding construction contributed 21.7% to the growth with Information and communication contributing another 39.8%.

For more detailed information on Gross Value Added and Net Value Added by activity go to Net and Gross Value Added.