This release is categorised as a CSO Fronter Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
Early estimates indicate that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased by an estimated 2.0% in Quarter 1 (Q1) 2026, when compared with Q4 2025.
The result was driven mainly by a fall in the multinational dominated sector of Industry in Q1 2026.
The preliminary GDP estimate shows a seasonally adjusted decrease of 2.0% in Q1 2026 in volume terms when compared with Q4 2025.
| Qtr on Qtr | |
| Q1 2022 | 4.1256 |
| Q2 2022 | 2.2957 |
| Q3 2022 | 2.0568 |
| Q4 2022 | -1.2505 |
| Q1 2023 | -1.6606 |
| Q2 2023 | 0.1224 |
| Q3 2023 | -1.8599 |
| Q4 2023 | -2.8682 |
| Q1 2024 | 1.7766 |
| Q2 2024 | -0.2511 |
| Q3 2024 | 6.2459 |
| Q4 2024 | 3.778 |
| Q1 2025 | 7.6694 |
| Q2 2025 | -0.5533 |
| Q3 2025 | 0.0183 |
| Q4 2025 | -3.8311 |
| Q1 2026 | -2.0137 |
| Year on Year | |
| Q1 2022 | 7.39 |
| Q2 2022 | 7.5971 |
| Q3 2022 | 7.2747 |
| Q4 2022 | 7.7874 |
| Q1 2023 | 2.4413 |
| Q2 2023 | -0.8314 |
| Q3 2023 | -4.7046 |
| Q4 2023 | -6.5679 |
| Q1 2024 | -2.6829 |
| Q2 2024 | -2.3462 |
| Q3 2024 | 3.9979 |
| Q4 2024 | 11.5642 |
| Q1 2025 | 20.1137 |
| Q2 2025 | 17.208 |
| Q3 2025 | 11.2052 |
| Q4 2025 | 2.1755 |
| Q1 2026 | -6.003 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (29 April 2026) published its latest Preliminary GDP Estimate for Quarter 1 (Q1) 2026. This release is a CSO Frontier Series output and care must be taken when interpreting these results as methodologies may change and data sources may be incomplete.
These preliminary results are subject to revisions in the Quarterly National Accounts (QNA) Q1 2026 release, which will be published in early June 2026 when additional data sources are available to the CSO. The results will be further updated following the release of the Annual National Accounts for 2025.
Commenting on the release, Enda Behan, Statistician in the National Accounts Integration Division, said: "In today’s release, GDP is estimated to have contracted by 2.0% in January, February, and March (Q1) 2026 in volume terms when compared with Q4 2025. This was driven by a decrease in the multinational dominated sector of Industry in Q1 2026.
These preliminary estimates are based on forecasting and data sources that are limited in scope when compared with those used for compiling GDP in the CSO’s Quarterly National Accounts. The data sources include information from the CSO Large Cases Unit, Retail Sales, Administrative Payroll Data, and other indicators of activity. Please see the Background Notes for more details on these estimates and the methodology used to calculate the preliminary results."