Spending by consumers will be in spotlight

National Accounts data from the CSO showed that GDP grew by an estimated 4.6% year-on-year in the first three-quarters of 2016. This is a strong performance, but it represents a slowdown in the growth rate of the economy compared to 2014 and 2015.

Growth in core domestic spending — consumer and government spending plus real investment — slowed to 3% from an average of 5.5% in the previous two years. Business investment fell back last year, after rising strongly in the previous three years.

This largely reflects the fact that catch-up demand saw a surge in business investment in 2013 to 2015 which could not be sustained in 2016. Business investment in 2016, though, was still at quite a high level.