NEW FIGURES RELEASED by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today indicate that Gross Domestic Product in Ireland increased by 0.9 per cent in 2012.

This is the second year in succession in which GDP showed an increase over the previous year following three years of declines in GDP during 2008 to 2010. GNP showed an increase of 3.4 per cent in 2012 over 2011.

The preliminary quarterly national accounts found that the fourth quarter of last year showed almost no change compared to 2011 in terms of GDP while Gross National Product, which excludes profits of foreign-owned companies, declined by o.8 per cent over the same period.

Exports performed positively for the third successive year while imports remained at much the same levels. The combined effect resulted in overall growth of €4,413 millon in net exports. This growth more than offsets the declines which took place in the final domestic demand components of expenditure.

The distribution, transport, software and communications sector showed the highest level of growth of 3.1 per cent in 2012 compared with the previous year. The ‘other services’ sector showed some small growth of 0.2 per cent and industry, including building and construction, also registered a slight increase of 0.3 percent.

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries declined by 10 per cent while public administration and defence decreased by 4.2 per cent over this period.

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