The Central Statistics Office has released the provisional Quarterly National Accounts for the first quarter of 2026. The figures show that GDP fell by 12.1 in the first quarter of this year, mainly due to the multinational dominated sector contracting by 27.1 percent during the period. On a more positive note, the domestic market expanded by 0.4 percent in the quarter.
Modified Domestic Demand, a broad measure of underlying domestic activity covering personal, government and investment spending, also expanded, rising by 0.6 percent in the first three months of 2026.
The report additionally notes a 0.6 percent increase in consumer spending during the quarter, along with an increase of 4.2 percent in the level of imports. Exports, however, decreased by 7 percent in the quarter.
Commenting on the data, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Simon Harris said:
“Despite ongoing external headwinds, today’s figures show the domestic economy continued to grow robustly in the first quarter with Modified Domestic Demand expanding by 4¼ per cent on an annual basis.
While today’s figures show a large annual contraction of 17 per cent in GDP, this reflects a return to more normal levels of exports in the first quarter of this year. Indeed, the exceptional level of exports seen in the same quarter of last year was driven, in part, by the front-loading of pharmaceutical exports to the US in anticipation of tariffs. My Department expects this effect to moderate over the coming quarters, with GDP projected to return to growth over the remainder of the year.”
LOADING...