In light of data released by the Central Statistics Office today it seems that Ireland’s latest 1.7 billion euro bailout instalment could not have come too soon. Not only has unemployment risen to 14.8 per cent but hopes for a return to economic growth in the not-too-distant future received another blow.
Compared with the first quarter, industry sectors including energy, construction and manufacturing reported a rise of 4.6 per cent in volume but this wasn’t enough to counteract the issues afflicting other economic areas like public administration, transport, agriculture and distribution.
Reports have detailed that government spending dropped by 3.9 per cent and seasonally adjusted personal expenditure dropped by 0.4 per cent. Furthermore a 1 billion euro decline in aviation investment was also shown to have had a serious knock on effect in terms of capital investment which (on a quarterly basis) declined by 29.4 per cent.
The latest GDP data for Eire reflects how the negatives have outweighed the positives in recent months. The most recent figures show that reduced consumer spending and slipping capital investment have resulted in the Irish economy stagnating in the second quarter of 2012. The CSO report listed gross national product as rising to 33 billion euro’s. This GNP figure (which excludes the impact of multinationals) was 4.3 per cent higher than in previous quarter. However, over the same three month period gross domestic product has been estimated to be utterly unchanged from the previous quarter, sticking at 39.7 billion euro’s, which is not the longed for result in a nation desperately hoping for signs of growth.
The outlook for the country doesn’t much improve if the Irish economy is looked at from an annual perspective as GNP experienced only a narrow rise to 2.9 per cent whilst GDP had fallen 1.1 per cent.
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