GDP falls 1% but decline slows

THE Irish economy shrank for the third consecutive year in 2010, but new figures show that its rate of decline is slowing.

Latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) numbers show that Ireland’s GDP fell by 1% last year, while GNP (which excludes profits generated by US multinational companies based here) declined by 2.1%. Indeed, 2009’s figures showed a 7.6% decline in GDP and a 10.7% GNP drop.

The CSO said that while industry, excluding the building and construction sector, grew by 13.2% last year, this growth was insufficient “to counterbalance the declines that took place in the remaining sectors of the economy”. It added that the building and construction sector fell by 31.8% — similar to the decline seen in the industry in 2009.