Press Statement

Preasráiteas

20 December 2021

Go to release: Economic Life and COVID-19 in Ireland, 2020-2021

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (20 December 2021) published, ‘Economic Life and COVID-19 in Ireland, 2020-2021’. This publication analyses the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on citizens and enterprises up to Q2 2021, compared with the time period immediately before the pandemic. The effects of the pandemic were not uniformly experienced. These effects are examined using a range of economic indicators and statistics, all of which are based on CSO surveys and outputs.

Commenting on the report, Brian O’Mahony, Statistician, said:

“In the wake of the arrival of the pandemic in Ireland in March 2020, the numbers in employment fell by 158,100 in Q2 compared with Q2 2019 and remained below comparable 2019 levels for Q3 and Q4 2020, and Q1 2021. However, employment levels rebounded in Q2 2021, with 211,000 more people in employment than the previous year, and 52,900 more than in 2019. Higher employment levels were not experienced uniformly across all sectors; while Information & Communication had 20% more employees in Q2 2021 than Q2 2019, Accommodation & Food Service Activities had close to a third fewer employees.

Households spent less on goods and services throughout 2020. However, despite a 22% fall in retail sale volumes in Q2 2020 compared with Q2 2019, the volume of sales was almost 10% higher in Q3 2020 and by 3.3% in Q4 2020 than the same quarters in the previous year. By Q2 2021, retail sale volumes were 8.7% greater than the same quarter pre-pandemic (2019). Similarly, while average consumer prices fell by 0.3% in 2020, by Q2 2021 prices were 1.1% more expensive than the same quarter in 2019. As consumer prices fell in 2020, so too did household expenditure on goods and services, declining by €10bn, while gross saving of households increased from €11.9bn in 2019 to €31.5bn in 2020.

New dwelling completions fell by 536 units in 2020 compared with 2019 while the cost of building and construction materials rose slightly. By Q2 2021 new dwelling completions had rebounded and were higher than the same quarter pre-pandemic (2019), while building and construction materials increased in cost by 5.7% over the same period. Apart from a fall of 0.8% in Q3, property prices increased gradually throughout 2020 compared with 2019 and were 5.9% more expensive in Q2 2021 than the same quarter in 2019. However, growth in property prices was not uniform, with prices outside of Dublin rising by 7.2% over this period, while prices in Dublin grew by 4.8%.

The value of goods exported increased by €9.5bn (or 6.2%) in 2020 compared with 2019, while the value of goods imported fell by €4.0bn (or 4.3%). The rise in the value of goods exported was largely due to an increase in the value of Chemicals & Related Products, n.e.s. exports of €12.8bn, while exports of Machinery & Transport Equipment, and Miscellaneous Manufactured Articles had a dampening effect. Exports of Chemicals & Related Products n.e.s. accounted for nearly €2 in every €3 of goods exported in 2020.

Despite changes to the labour market throughout the pandemic, Gross Value Added (GVA) rose by 5.6% (or €18.9bn) in 2020 compared with 2019. However, this was due entirely to a 23.1% (or €35.0bn) increase in the value added by the foreign-owned multinational enterprise (MNE) dominated sectors, as GVA by non-MNE dominated sectors fell by 8.7% (or €16.1bn) between 2019 and 2020.

Based on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the economy expanded by 5.9% in 2020. The domestic economy (as measured by Modified Total Domestic Demand or MTDD, an indicator designed to exclude large transactions of foreign corporations that do not have a big impact on the domestic economy), contracted by 4.2% in 2020. The total economy, (as measured by GDP), expanded by 22.7% in the second quarter of 2021 compared with Q2 2019, while the domestic economy, (as measured by MTDD), grew by 5.2% over the same period.”

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