Irish economic growth is estimated to have stalled somewhat in the second quarter of the year, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said on Friday, as investment levels fell from a high level in the first three months of the year.
Still, the economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), expanded by more than 10 per cent in the three months to the end of June, reversing two consecutive quarters of contraction.
The earlier contraction came off the back of a sharp increase in GDP last year as multinationals, particularly pharmaceutical companies, front-loaded goods exports into the US to avoid tariffs.
However, economists consider Irish GDP to be an unreliable metric due to the distorting impact of large intellectual property and aircraft leasing transactions by multinationals operating in the State.
When those activities are stripped out, the Irish economy shrank by 0.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the first, the CSO said.
More to follow …