Press Statement

Preasráiteas

04 March 2022

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (04 March 2022) published Quarterly National Accounts and International Accounts results for Quarter 4, 2021 and preliminary results for the Year 2021.

Assistant Director General with responsibility for Economic Statistics, Jennifer Banim, commented:

”The impact of the pandemic varied across the sectors of the economy in 2021 as the levels of COVID-19 related restrictions changed over the year and today’s results show the overall annual impact and the underlying quarterly variations.

Several sectors focused on the domestic market experienced higher levels of economic activity in 2021, with the Distribution, Transport, Hotels & Restaurants sector growing by 6.2% and Arts & Entertainment increasing by 12.6%. However, the Construction sector contracted by 4.7% in the year and Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing decreased by 1.4%. Growth continued in the more globalised sectors of the economy with Industry increasing by 24.0% and the Information & Communication sector growing by 14.1% in the year. Overall, multinational dominated sector growth was 21.9% and in 2021, these sectors accounted for 56.2% of total value added in the economy, compared with a 52.5% share in 2020 and a 45.1% share in 2019.

Looking at expenditure in the economy, Government spending on goods and services increased by 5.3% in 2021, while personal spending on goods and services (the PCE indicator) increased by 5.7% in the year. Looking at PCE constant price levels over the past three years, personal spending reached €105.2 billion in 2021, a recovery compared to the 2020 result of €99.5 billion, but 5.3% lower than the €111.1 billion pre-pandemic level of spending in 2019. PCE accounted for almost 25% of GDP in 2021, down from 26.4% of GDP in 2020 and 31.1% in 2019.

Overall, GDP is estimated to have increased by 13.5% in 2021, driven largely by growth of 16.6% in Exports of Goods & Services in the year. GNP - a measure of economic activity that excludes the profits of multinationals - increased by 11.5% in 2021.”

Commenting on the impact of globalisation activities in 2021, Ms Banim said:

“Compared to 2020, investment in Intellectual Property Products (IPP) decreased by 56.1% in 2021, driving a decrease of 16.6% in Final Domestic Demand in the year. Modified Domestic Demand (MDD), a broad measure of underlying domestic demand that excludes IPP and aircraft related globalisation effects, increased by 6.5% in 2021. 

In International Accounts results, the Current Account of the Balance of Payments recorded a surplus of €58.8 billion in flows with the rest of the world in 2021, driven by improvements in the merchandise and services balances. The improvement of €58.8 billion in the Services balance between 2020 and 2021 reflects the lower levels of IPP imports in 2021. Multinational profit net outflows were €90.7 billion in the year, an increase of €21.0 billion on 2020 levels.

Today’s International Accounts publication includes a table of Current Account transactions with the UK. The results show a surplus of €17.5 billion for Trade in Goods & Services with the UK in 2021, an increase of €6.2 billion on the 2020 trade balance. The trade surplus was offset by a deficit of €10.6 billion for net income flows, giving an overall Current Account surplus of €6.9 billion with the UK in 2021.”

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