The Irish economy contracted in the first quarter of 2012, but did not fall into recession last last year as previously thought, official data showed on Thursday. Irish gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 1.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2012, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said in a statement. However, the CSO added that GDP grew by 0.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year. That marked a major revision from the previous estimate of a 0.2-per cent contraction. From ahramonline