New figures show that last year the Irish economy grew by only 0.1% in terms of Gross National Product. This is the worst result in 20 years.
However, GDP, which includes profits from multinational companies to be repatriated, grew by 6.9%.
GDP growth in 2002 was driven strongly by the output of foreign direct investment enterprises, especially in the chemicals sector.
Profits from these enterprises are excluded when calculating GNP and the Government has been criticised for fostering a dependence on foreign investment to the detriment of domestic industry.
The figures, from the Central Statistics Office, show that consumer spending increased by 8.9%, while the increase in Government expenditure was 14.4%.
Exports of goods and services exceeded imports by €24.144bn in 2002 as compared with €17.236bn in 2001.
This rise of €6.908bn in the export surplus was more than offset by an increase of €7.620bn in net factor income outflows to the rest of the world.
