Economy is still ‘growing strongly’ amid distorted data, say experts

Boosted by domestic spending, the economy is continuing to grow strongly, CSO figures published yesterday suggest, despite the accounting procedures by multinationals distorting an in-depth understanding of what is really going in the Irish economy.

The CSO figures showing the economy climbed 5.2% in 2016, the fastest in the EU, came amid huge statistical distortions caused by one or more multinational shifting large amounts of intellectual property rights into Ireland. Under confidentiality clauses, the statistics office suppressed some data.

The chief economist at Davy Stockbrokers, Conall Mac Coille, said the headline GDP growth figure nonetheless reflected the true level of growth and was consistent with other indicators showing employment growing strongly.