Category: Irish GDP

For some time now Irish exports have grown at a double digit pace, even during the Pandemic period, seemingly immune to cyclical developments in the global economy, and as such driving stellar growth in GDP, which averaged 9.2% a year between 2017 and 2022.. Chemicals and Pharma were key in that period, but there was also a remarkable rise in goods produced elsewhere but owned by Irish based entities and as such classified as an Irish export. These appear to be largely ‘machinery and equipment’ and generally thought to be semi-conductors for phones and made in China. The impact of this outsourcing is significant; in 2022 total Irish merchandise exports as per the national accounts amounted to €354bn, with goods produced here at €208bn or less than 60% of the total.

That long trend growth in exports came to a halt in the final quarter of last year and exports fell again in the first and second quarters. The fall in merchandise exports was particularly large in q2, at over 10% in the quarter in value and volume, so driving a 4.1% fall in total exports (including services) . Yet merchandise exports produced in Ireland actually rose marginally so the decline was due to outsourced exports, with goods for processing down €15bn or 58%. This may be company specific or due to issues in China itself and as such exports may rebound to some degree but that is uncertain and we have cut our export forecast to zero for the year.

We now expect domestic demand to contract by over 1%, with an 8% fall in investment spending offsetting growth in consumer spending and government consumption. Construction is forecast to fall by 3%, including a decline in housebuilding, with a 10% contraction in spending on machinery, equipment and Intangibles.The latter is strongly impacted by multinational R&D and is excluded from the CSO’s measure of modified domestic demand, which we expect to grow by 1.5%, supported by a 3% rise in consumer spending, which is considerably weaker than the 9.4% recorded last year, following a significant upward revision. The corollary was a significant downward revision to the savings ratio, although still running at a double digit pace.

Real pay per head is falling but aggregate real income for households is now rising again , thanks to the strength of employment growth. Inflation has been slower to fall than many anticipated, with the CPI measure at 6.3% for August. That is well down from the 9.1% peak but the fall was largely due to base effects from energy prices (although food inflation is slowing sharply) with service inflation now the driver, including a significant rise in mortgage costs, which added 1.4pp to the latest annual figure. Moreover fuel prices have started to rise again, so we expect only a modest fall from here to year-end and an annual average figure of 6.5%. The Government and the Central Bank now use the HICP measure in their forecasts, which excludes mortgage interest and is consequentially lower, and we expect that to average 5.6% this year. Both measure should fall gradually next year on base effects alone absent another energy shock.

We have emphasised for some time now that Ireland is at full employment, with the unemployment rate now trending around 4%. Employment growth has been strong, despite some high profile redundancies in part of the ICT sector, with a 78k rise on average likely this year, or 3.1%, broadly matched by a similar increase in the labour supply. That strength has been crucial in preventing a sharper correction in the housing market and in mortgage lending for purchase than seen to date, despite the rise in mortgage rates, and helped support tax receipts, with income tax up an annual 8.2% in August.

That heading is slowing though as indeed is tax revenue overall, to 6.6% in August from double digit growth rates seen earlier in the year. Some headings are flat (excise duty,impacted by the cut on fuel duty) and others well down on the year, including capital taxes and stamp duty ( affected by weak commercial property sector). VAT is still strong, rising by over 11%, but again is slowing, no doubt impacted by the fall in inflation. The big change though is in corporation tax, which is still well ahead of last year , by over 7%, but was growing by over 50% at one stage. One might expect the weaker export performance to eventually feed through to multinational profits and in that sense some softening is to be expected.

The upshot though may be that the Budget surplus expected this year could be lower than expected. Moreover the €65bn cumulative surplus flagged in April over the period 2023-2026 may not emerge as predicted, due to higher spending than initially projected and to some softening in receipts, including no transfers from the Central Bank. which will probably record losses.Employment growth too is likely to slow with a knock-on effect on income tax receipts and VAT.

The CSO has just published revised national accounts for the the Irish economy. The initial 4.6% decline in real GDP in the first quarter of this year has been revised down to -2.8% , thanks in large part to a smaller fall in exports than initially thought, but the most interesting aspect of the new data relates to consumer spending . It now transpires that we have been experiencing a consumer boom which also helps to explain why Irish inflation has remained stubbornly high.

Consumer spending in 2022 is now put at €133bn, which is €10bn higher than previously published, with 2021 also revised up,this time by €6bn. In volume terms personal consumption grew by 8.4% instead of the initial 6.6%, with 2021 now put at 8.4% from the original 4.6%. In other words real consumer spending over the past two years rose by 18.6%. As a consequence modified domestic demand ( which includes government spending and investment adjusted for multinational investment flows) is now seen to have risen by 17.5% instead of the initial 14.5%.

Consumer spending had fallen in 2020 because households could still buy goods but not a a range of discretionary services and it is spending on the latter which grew very rapidly last year.Spending on food and alcohol fell in volume terms but spending on restaurants and hotels rose by 27%, with a similar rise in spending on recreation and culture while spending on foreign travel rose by a massive 248%.

The most recent inflation data, for June, highlights the impact that spending has had on the price level in Ireland. The annual inflation rate is certainly slowing, down to 6.1% from a peak of 9.2% last October, but that largely reflects falling energy prices. Indeed the core inflation rate , which excludes energy and fresh food, is actually rising, hitting 7.1% in June.

Goods price inflation in Ireland is now just 1% while services inflation is 10.3% so it is the latter now driving the overall inflation rate. This does reflect higher mortgage rates ( adding 1.3 percentage points to the total) but the rebound in spending on the discretionary services noted above is clearly apparent in the CPI data: inflation in package holidays is 43%, airfares are up 34%, hotels are up 13% with restaurants at 6.6%.

The growth in consumer spending is slowing, to an annual 5.1% in the first quarter, and that would appear to be necessary if inflation is to fall back to the levels forecasters expect.

The Irish economy contracted by 4.6% in the first quarter, a much steeper decline than the flash estimate of -2.7%. The scale of the fall allied to a massive base effect (GDP had risen by 7.9% in the first quarter of 2022) pushed the annual growth rate into negative territory at -0.2%.

The headline figure in the Irish national accounts often masks a wide disparity in the performance of the indigenous and multinational sectors and this was the case in q1, although for a change it was the former that outperformed. Consumer spending rose by 1.7%, boosted by strong auto sales, with construction spending increasing by 8.7% while investment in machinery and equipment excluding aircraft leasing jumped by 16%. Government consumption did fall, by 3.5%, but overall final modified domestic demand grew by 2.7% and by an annual 5.5% which is more consistent than GDP with the very strong employment data seen this year.

The fall in GDP was largely due to a 2.1% fall in exports with merchandise exports down 4.6%. This reflects a fall in contract manufacturing (offshore production for Irish based entities) and may relate to a certain mobile phone company’s issues in China.Imports also fell, by 2.2%, but in this case it was due to a decline in service imports, reflecting weaker spending on R&D and royalties. This is also captured as investment spending on Intangibles and this duly fell sharply as well , by 36%, which also explains why overall capital formation fell by 12.7%.

It is also worth noting that the fall in the quarter is much larger than the component parts would imply, due to a large change in the statistical adjustment figure and as such may be revised.

The Irish economy grew by 13.6% in real terms last year and the annual growth rate remains remarkably strong, at 11.1% in the second quarter from 10.8% in q1. Growth may soften over the second half of the year, notably from weaker consumer spending, but absent a fall in exports a 10% figure looks plausible.

On a quarterly basis GDP grew by 1.8% in q2, with the expansion more balanced than often seen in the Irish data, where exports dominate. Consumer spending had fallen for two consecutive quarters but rebounded in q2, rising by 1.8%. This may seem at odds with the very weak retail sales seen of late but the latter also rose in q2, albeit solely due to a surge in spending in April, with sharp declines to July. The implication is that consumer spending may fall again in q3.

Government spending also rose in q2 , by 2.7% and there was also a strong rebound in capital formation, rising by 17.9%. Building and construction spending rose by 4.8% in the quarter,while investment in machinery and equipment increased by 26% , with spending on Intangibles also positive, at 22%.

Strong domestic demand, particularly from investment, would normally be reflected in imports, and growth there was 5.5%, which outstripped export growth of 3.3%. GNP, which adjusts for net profit and interest outflows , also expanded, by 2.1%.

The annual GDP figures also reflect the scale of price inflation seen this year, notably in external trade, construction and consumer spending. Consequently GDP in nominal terms rose by an annual 17.7% in q2 following a 15.7% rise in q1. Absent a contraction in the second half of the year the implication is that the combination of very strong real growth plus the impact of inflation could result in Irish nominal GDP rising by 17% , so reaching €500bn for the full year.

The US economy contracted for a second successive quarter in q2, so fulfilling one of the most common definitions of recession, although consumer spending there is still growing and the economy is around full employment. Growth in the euro zone, in contrast, has surprised to the upside in the first half of the year, contrary to expectations , in part due to a big rebound in tourism across France, Italy and Spain, although markets are still projecting a period of very weak or falling GDP which it is assumed will limit the degree to which the ECB can raise interest rates.

The future path of Irish GDP will largely depend on how the external sector performs and the composition of exports makes it less likely that a big decline there will materialise judged on the evidence from the Pandemic period. The labour market here also appears robust, although it is clear that households have retrenched in response to the surge in consumer prices since last autumn.

Indeed, we have seen two consecutive quarters in which real consumer spending fell; the decline in the final quarter of last year was modest, at 0.6%, but that was followed by a sharper fall in the first quarter of 2022, at 1.3%. Retail sales , a more timely indicator of household spending, did recover in the second quarter, rising by 2.2% in volume terms, but that was due to a big increase in April, as sales have actually fallen in nine of the past twelve months. Excluding the motor trade, retail sales also picked up in q2, albeit by only 0.5%, and again reflecting a strong April as sales fell in May and June by a cumulative 4%.

The annual change in the monthly retail sales data is volatile given the distortions due to Lockdowns last year but the fall in June was notably large, at 6.6%, with only two sectors recording positive growth- Bars and Chemists- so the squeeze on real household incomes is clearly biting. CPI inflation was probably unchanged in July at 9.1%, a welcome respite if true following five consecutive months of acceleration, and the ongoing fall in fuel prices offers some hope that we may be at or near the inflation peak. The scale of the weakness in retail sales may also prompt shops to offer more sales, so putting additional downward pressure on the monthly CPI but the big upside risk remains the broader energy picture, with European gas prices still rising and hence feeding through into higher home heating costs.Ireland may avoid a recession in terms of GDP but household spending and the High Street have not escaped.

Ireland’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year was marked by a dichotomy between domestic spending and exports; the former fell, no doubt impacted by the acceleration in inflation, while the latter grew strongly. The net impact was a double digit rise in GDP,which also implies that the consensus growth figure for the full year, currently around 4%, is too low.

The monthly data on industrial production and Irish trade had implied a strong quarterly reading in exports, although the national accounts figure also includes output manufactured offshore, largely in China, so adding a degree of uncertainty given the Lockdowns there. In the event the outsourcing component was lower than of late but not enough to prevent a 5.2% quarterly rise in the volume of exports. which boosted GDP by 7.5 percentage points. There was also an unusually large contribution from stock building of 3.8 percentage points and these two components largely explain the 10.8% surge in q1 GDP.

The consensus view this year envisages strong growth in consumer spending, in part fuelled by a big fall in the savings ratio, although we are skeptical on that issue. The upside surprise in inflation may also be having an impact though, and personal consumption actually fell in volume terms in q1, by 0.7%, following a 0.5% decline in the final quarter of last year. Government consumption also contracted in volume terms, by 0.4%, while the other component of domestic demand, capital formation, plunged by 39.5%, driven by another large fall in spending on Intangibles . This component is extremely volatile on an annual let alone quarterly basis but is broadly GDP neutral as most of it is also captured as a service import (which reduces GDP) . Consequently that component fell sharply in q1 , by 19%, with total imports falling by 12%.

The annual growth rate of GDP picked up to 11% in the first quarter, from 9.6% , and as such means that Ireland would have to record a recession in the coming quarters to leave the average for the year anywhere near the 4% consensus. GDP growth forecasts will therefore probably be revised up in the near term, although domestic demand projections are likely to be revised down, notable consumer spending.