Positive CSO data points to Irish return to markets

Ireland’s prospects of meeting the EU/IMF bailout targets in 2013 and making a full return to the markets received a boost with the latest growth figures from the Central Statistics Office.

GDP grew 0.2% in the three months to the end of September compared with the previous quarter, although GDP was 0.8% higher than the third quarter of 2011. However, GNP fell by 0.4% compared with the second quarter this year, but grew by 3.7% on the third quarter of last year.

“In all, given how notoriously volatile and revision-prone quarterly Irish GDP data are, in terms of drawing a conclusion from [these figures], I prefer to focus on the underlying trends as opposed to the specific numbers themselves,” said NCB Stockbroker economist Philip O’Sullivan.