Multinationals like Apple’s operations in Cork have a significant impact on GDP figures.
Ireland appears to have shrugged off a technical recession with the rebounding tech sector helping return the overall economy to growth in the first three months of the year.
Early estimates from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show the economy, measured using the gross domestic product (GDP) standard grew by1.1pc in the first three months of 2024, compared to the preceding three months.
The latest growth will party reverse a dip that saw GDP down by 3.4pc in the last three months of 2023 compared with the same time in 2023. The rebound was driven mainly by an increase in the Information & Communication sector, the CSO said.
GDP for the full year last year was estimated to have fallen by 1.9pc when compared with 2022, the CSO said previously. Even with the latest sign of recovery GDP is estimated to have fallen by 0.8oc when compared with the same quarter of 2023.
Ireland was officially in recession last year as a result of shifts in the multinationals dominated and most globalised parts of the economy but a strong jobs market and the health of the domestic economy meant few notices what was essentially a technical issue.
The results were down largely to a dip in the pharmaceutical and tech sectors, where exports have been falling throughout last year.
Modified domestic demand, which strips out things like patents held by branches of multinationals and aircraft leasing from the GDP data, grew last year.
Commenting on the latest estimates, Enda Behan, Statistician in the CSO National Accounts Data Collection and Quality Division, said the return to overall growth was driven by an increase in the multinational dominated sector of Information & Communication in Q1 2024.