The Central Statistics Office says that Gross Domestic Product grew by 2.4% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same time last year. The growth in Gross National Product for the same time was 3.9%.
The profits of foreign owned industries are excluded from GNP, the CSO points out.
During the first three months of 2005, consumer spending, in volume terms, rose by 5.8% on the same time in 2004. Capital investment was 10% per cent up on the first quarter of 2004.
The CSO said that in the first quarter of 2005, net exports were down by €1.297m compared to Q1 2004.
The volume of industry output was also lower - down 0.8%. Output of other services was 5.1% higher.
Other figures from the Central Statistics Office today show that GDP increased by 4.5% for the whole of 2004 while GNP rose by 4% compared to 2003.
The CSO figures show that consumer spending rose by 5.1% in 2004, while Government expenditure rose by 9.4% last year.
The figures also reveal that exports of goods and services exceeded imports by €22,832m in 2004 compared with €22,292m in 2003.
