Irish economy in recession as multinational-dominated sectors contract

Multinational-dominated sectors, which account for more than half of the economy, are shrinking

Finance Minister Michael McGrath said that drop in GDP is partly due to the pharmaceutical sector seeing a fall-off in demand for covid-related product. Photograph: Leah Farrell

Ireland’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 1.9% between July and September marking the fourth consecutive quarter which has seen a decline and confirming the economy is in recession, the latest National Quarterly Accounts show.

The drop in GDP is being largely attributed to the contracting of multinational-dominated sectors which combined saw a decrease in output of 3.8% while exports - which are heavily dependent on these companies - declined by 2.1% while imports also dropped 1.7%.