The country’s gross domestic product grew by 5.5% in 2019, likely making it the European Union’s fastest-growing economy again, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show today.
The pace of growth was lower that the 6.3% predicted by the Finance Department as the country braces for the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
GDP, which in recent years has become an incredibly volatile way of measuring Ireland’s open economy, expanded by 1.8% on a quarterly basis from October to December, the CSO figures showed today.
Greater Brexit clarity convinced Ireland to nudge up its GDP growth forecasts for 2019, 2020 and 2021 in January.
But Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said this week that the country’s highly integrated economy will inevitably be impacted by the expected global slowdown related to coronavirus.
Mr Donohoe said it was too early to predict the extent to which growth would be impacted but that weaker global growth will affect the country’s short-term outlook.
The economy is forecast to grow by 3.9% this year.
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