Skip to main content
Normal View

Economic Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 16 September 2016

Friday, 16 September 2016

Questions (239)

David Cullinane

Question:

239. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Finance the other indicators that investors are looking at in terms of the Irish economy, as highlighted by a person (details supplied) when appearing before the Committee of Public Accounts on 21 July 2016. [24983/16]

View answer

Written answers

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the National Income and Expenditure results for 2015 in July. These figures suggest that the economy grew by 26.3 per cent last year. This is significantly stronger than their previous estimate of 7.8 per cent.

The exceptional figure is largely related to the activities of multinationals across a small number of sectors including the tech, pharmaceutical and aircraft leasing sectors.  In particular, corporate restructuring and a number of balance sheet reclassifications had a substantial impact.

These factors have little, if any, impact on actual output and income developments in Ireland and greatly exaggerate the size of our economy. In view of this, a number of other indicators are also examined such as consumer spending, taxation trends and employment growth. An assessment of these indicators shows that the economy is performing very strongly.

For instance, recent data published indicate that:

- The volume of retail sales increased by 6.3 per cent year-on-year in July 2016.

- New cars licensed for the first time were up 20 per cent to end-July year-on-year.

- While consumer sentiment has moderated somewhat it still remains well above the long-run average.

- Purchasing Managers Indices show continued expansion in the manufacturing, services and construction sector.

- Tax receipts are up 6.2% to end-August year-on-year.

- Employment grew by 2.9 per cent over the year to Q2 2016, equivalent to an increase of over 56,000 jobs. As a result, there are now over 2 million people in employment for the first time since early 2009.

- The unemployment rate fell to 8.3 per cent in August, down from a peak of over 15 per cent in early 2012.

These are some of the most important indicators that my Department and investors currently monitor when assessing the strength of the Irish economy.

It is important to note that the Central Statistics Office has put together a group of experts to provide guidance on how more relevant indicators could be produced and published alongside the GDP figures in the future. My Department will be represented on this group. It is expected that this group will publish a report detailing their findings later this year.

I must also highlight that, given the exceptional nature of these growth figures, the Government will not formulate policy on the basis of these inflated figures.  Rather, policy will continue to be designed on the basis of more normal growth rates such as those recently indicated by my Department, which are in the region of 3½ to 4 per cent growth over the coming years.

Top
Share