Ireland officially back in recession
The Irish economy is officially back in recession, new figures have revealed.
According to a report on the overall economy – measured under gross domestic product and including the multinational sector – the country has seen a fall in the value of business and services at the end of last year and early this year.
GDP declined by 0.6% in real terms over this period. It fell 0.2% in the three months to the end of last year, and in the period July-September 2011 it was down 1%.
The homegrown end of the economy – gross national product – is performing more strongly, however, with 2.9% growth in the first quarter of the year.
Revised Central Statistics Office figures state that the country is back in recession for the first time since 2009.
Personal expenditure declined by 3.0% on a seasonally adjusted basis between Q4 2012 and Q1 2013.
Capital Investment declined by 7.4% while net exports decreased by €1.021bn over the same period.
Government expenditure recorded a small increase of 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance said the numbers are disappointing.
He said analysis showed GDP had been falling in both a quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year basis.
The Government blamed the impact of a weak global economy for impacting on demand for Irish exports but also suggested the multibillion pharmaceutical sector was being affected by what it called the “patent cliff” for medicines.
It also said a series of one-off factors were playing their part in the poor returns such as a new registration system for car sales spread figures more evenly over a year.
Despite the bad report, the spokesman insisted all fiscal targets continue to be met.
Budget 2014 takes place in October and will include revised forecasts which will be independently assessed.
