New figures show flat economy
The Irish economy showed little improvement between July and September of this year, according to new figures released today.
The CSO report shows GDP growth of 0.2% in the period.
When the profits of multinationals are stripped out however, the figures show that the domestic economy (GNP) contracted by 0.4% in the same period.
Compared with the same quarter in 2012, GDP increased by 0.8% while GNP increased by 3.7%.
Distribution, transport, software and communication all increased by 12.8% in volume in Q3 2012 compared to Q2 2012.
Other services increased by 1.1% over the same period.
However, combined decreases in the other sectors of the economy, particularly in industry, building, and agriculture, brought the GDP increase down to 0.2%.
Personal expenditure increased by 0.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis between Q2 2012 and Q3 2012.
Capital investment increased by 8.5% while Government expenditure decreased by 0.3% over the same period.
This led to an overall increase in final domestic demand of 1.9% in Q3 2012 compared to Q2 2012.
Net exports declined by €536m over this period thus reducing the overall growth in GDP for Q3 2012 compared to Q2 2012 to 0.2%.
