Irish quarterly GDP dips

Ireland’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 2.6 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year but still stood 6.1 percent higher than a year ago after data for the previous quarter was revised up sharply, data showed on Friday.
Irish GDP has outperformed anywhere else in Europe for the last three years but the relevance of using the conventional measure for economic growth was called into question a year ago when 2015 growth was adjusted up to 26 percent after a massive revision to the stock of capital assets.
While not as dramatic, quarterly GDP growth for the final three months of 2016 was revised up to 5.8 percent from an already strong 2.5 percent, although growth for the year as a whole was nudged down to 5.1 percent from 5.2 percent. That had a knock-on effect on the quarterly comparison for January to March, with the quarter-on-quarter dip contrasting with Ireland’s fastest pace of jobs growth since the financial crisis achieved over the same period.
“This reflects Ireland’s notoriously volatile GDP figures, distorted by the multinational sector,” said Conall Mac Coille, chief economist at Davy Research, referring to the 2.6 percent decline.

Source: Arab News