(Alliance News) - Ireland's gross domestic product climbed sharply in the third quarter of 2020 as Covid-19 restrictions in the country eased, figures from the Central Statistics Office showed Friday.
Data showed an 11.1% quarter-on-quarter GDP increase on a seasonally adjusted basis in the three months ended September 30.
It followed two successive quarters of decline, a 3.2% fall in the second quarter of 2020 and a 3.5% drop in the first.
Jennifer Banim, assistant director general with responsibility for Economic Statistics, said: "Easing of Covid-19 related restrictions led to growth across almost all sectors of the economy in quarter 3, 2020. Sectors focused on the domestic market experienced significantly higher levels of economic activity in this quarter, with construction increasing by 53.4% and the distribution, transport, hotels & restaurants sector growing by 46.9%.
"Growth continued in the more globalised sectors and industry increased by 4.6% while the information & communication sector increased by 24.9% in the quarter. The arts & entertainment sector contracted by 3.9% in Q3 2020."
Year-on-year, third-quarter GDP was up 8.1% in real terms.
Gross national product fell 1.9% quarter-on-quarter. This is a measure of economic activity excluding profit from multinationals.
Banim said the decline reflected "the significant increase in multinational profit outflows" in the third quarter.
The Central Statistics Office also reported that Ireland's current account balance was EUR12.71 billion in the third quarter of 2020, up from EUR11.61 billion a year earlier.
Banim commented: "The current account of the balance of payments recorded a surplus of EUR12.7 billion in flows with the rest of the world in Q3 2020. The accumulation of the [intellectual property products] relocations to Ireland in recent years is now leading to reduced overall quarterly royalty payments abroad. Specifically, royalty imports for pharmaceutical products and preparations decreased to EUR2.9 billion in Q3 2020 from EUR5.3 billion in Q3 2019. Multinational profit outflows were EUR28.1 billion in the quarter, an increase of EUR6.6 billion on Q3 2019 levels.
Ireland's current account balance with the UK in the third quarter was EUR1.25 billion, up sharply from an EUR88 million surplus in the second quarter and swinging from a EUR899 million deficit in the third quarter of 2019.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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