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% sequentially in the first quarter, much faster than the 4.2% decline in the fourth quarter. In the flash estimate, the rate of fall was only 2%. 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% sharp contraction in the multinational-dominated sector of industry, the CSO said.
The globalized industry sector shrank 35%, and the information and communication sector posted a decrease of 2% over the same period. On the other hand, domestic sectors managed to expand by 0.4%.
Modified domestic demand, or MDD, a broad measure of underlying domestic activity that covers personal, government, and investment spending, grew by 0.6% compared to the previous quarter.
Personal spending increased by 0.6%, and the non-multinational-dominated sector grew by 0.4%.
On an annual basis, GDP showed a renewed downturn of 17.1% in the March quarter, following a 2.2% growth in the final quarter of 2025. The decrease was 0.6% in the flash estimate published earlier.
Separate official data showed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.9% in May from 4.8% in April. There were 141,700 unemployed people compared to 140,700 in the previous month.
