Ireland is not unique in staging ‘unusual’ recovery

Figures published for the eurozone economy show that growth strengthened in the first quarter of this year, with GDP expanding by 0.5%. The data available for April and May suggest that the pace of activity in the eurozone has continued to pick up momentum.

This is good news for Ireland, as the eurozone takes around 45% of Irish exports. We don’t have official National Accounts data yet, though, to tell us how the Irish economy performed in the first quarter of the year.

However, first quarter data published last week on the Irish labour market were very impressive. They suggest that the economy is continuing to grow at a very strong pace, having registered a rise of 5.2% in GDP in 2016.