Preliminary estimates from Ireland’s central statistics office showed gross domestic product (GDP) increasing by 7.8 percent last year. In the fourth quarter, GDP increased by 2.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis on the previous three months. These results could be revised at mid-year.
Dermot O’Leary, chief economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin, had forecast that GDP would come in at 7.0 percent.
“It is substantially above our expectations… off the charts in the European sense,” he told CNBC after the results were out.
“I think the positive thing about these numbers is that the outperformance continued throughout the year and in fact there is a certain strengthening of momentum towards the end of 2015.”
Manufacturing output rose by 14.2 percent in 2015, while capital formation rose strongly by 28.2 percent. Domestic demand increase by 9.3 percent, even as government expenditure fell slightly, by 0.8 percent.
[Source:- CNBC ]
