Economy ‘not as strong as figures suggest’
According to official data, Ireland was the fastest growing economy among the 28 EU states over the first six months of the year with an increase in GDP of 7.6%. However, IFAC estimates that, stripping out the effect of “contract manufacturing”, the actual growth rate was 3.6%.
Over the past couple of years, a number of Irish-based big multinationals have outsourced manufacturing to other countries, but the sales of these products are booked in Ireland. The effect of this practice is to inflate the Irish GDP figure through higher exports, yet it does not lead to any increased employment or benefit the economy in any other way.
