Data
Today’s results include revisions routinely incorporated at this time of the year due to the availability of more detailed data.
Modified Gross National Income (GNI), which was created by the Central Bank of Ireland in February 2017 as a new way to measure the Irish economy, recorded a level of €213.7 billion in the year.
Imports of intellectual property products (IPP) drove the balance of payments current account into a deficit of €40.4 billion in 2019.
In contrast, the modified current account balance, which excludes globalisation effects, recorded a surplus of €16.5 billion in 2019.
For Q1 2020, the estimate for GDP growth is 1.2%, unchanged from the provisional estimate published in June.
Statistician Jennifer Banim commented: “In the annual National Income and Expenditure results, GDP is estimated to have grown by 5.6% in 2019, driven by a 10.5% increase in exports of goods and services.
“GNP – a measure of economic activity that excludes the profits of multi-nationals – grew by 3.4% in the year.
“Personal consumption of goods and services, an important indicator of domestic economic activity, grew by 3.2% in 2019.”
Intellectual Property Products
The CSO says that capital formation increased by almost 75% in 2019, due to higher levels of investment in Intellectual Property Products (IPP), but because of offsetting higher amounts of IPP imports, this increase in intangible investment had an overall neutral impact on GDP in the year.
All sectors of the economy experienced growth in 2019. Information and Communication grew by 17.2% in the year, while industry saw growth of 3.3%.
In the sectors focused on the domestic market, construction grew by 7.5% and the distribution, transport, hotels and restaurants sector increased their volumes by 3.6%.
Commenting on the supplementary modified indicators, Jennifer Banim said: “Today’s results include estimates for GNI, an indicator designed to exclude globalisation effects that disproportionately impact Irish economic results.
Indicator
GNI is designed to be a supplementary indicator of the level (or size) of the Irish economy and act as a supplement to GDP in ratio analysis.
The impact of the COVID-19 restrictions varied across the sectors of the economy in Q1, 2020.
In the more globalised sectors, growth continued, with the information and communication sector growing by 8.5% in the quarter.
However, the professional and administrative services sector contracted by 4.5% in Q1.
Domestic market
The sectors focused on the domestic market also experienced varied effects in the quarter, with the distribution, transport, hotels and restaurants sector contracting by 3.0% and construction contracting by 1.6%.
Personal spending decreased by 3.1% in the quarter with COVID-19 restrictions significantly impacting consumption in March.
Government spending on current goods and services increased by 0.5% in Quarter 1, 2020.