Financial News: Irish Economic Downturn Deepens In Q1

Irish Economic Downturn Deepens In Q1

06/04/2026 - 06:51:00 (RTTNews)

(RTTNews) - Ireland's economy shrank more deeply and faster than initially estimated in the first quarter, the latest data from the statistical office CSO showed on Thursday.

Gross domestic product fell a seasonally adjusted 12.1 percent sequentially in the first quarter, much faster than the 4.2 percent decline in the fourth quarter. In the flash estimate, the rate of fall was only 2.0 percent. Thus, the country continued to remain in recession as the GDP fell for the fourth straight quarter.

The downturn was due to a 27.1 percent sharp contraction in the multinational-dominated sector of industry, the CSO said. The globalized industry sector shrank 35.0 percent, and the information and communication sector posted a decrease of 2.0 percent over the same period. On the other hand, domestic sectors managed to expand by 0.4 percent.

Modified domestic demand, or MDD, a broad measure of underlying domestic activity that covers personal, government, and investment spending, grew by 0.6 percent compared to the previous quarter. Personal spending increased by 0.6 percent, and the non-multinational-dominated sector grew by 0.4 percent.

On an annual basis, GDP showed a renewed downturn of 17.1 percent in the March quarter, following a 2.2 percent growth in the final quarter of 2025. The decrease was 0.6 percent in the flash estimate published earlier.

Separate official data showed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.9 percent in May from 4.8 percent in April. There were 141,700 unemployed people compared to 140,700 in the previous month.

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