Figures released this morning show a sharp fall in economic output in the final three months of last year.
According to the Central Statistics Office, gross domestic product (GDP) fell at an annual rate of 7.5% in the fourth quarter of 2008, the biggest fall since quarterly records began to be taken in the 1990s.
Gross national product - which excludes profits from multi-national companies based here - was 6.7% lower in the same period. Overall last year, GDP fell by 2.3% and GNP by 3.1%.
A breakdown showed that consumer spending fell at an annual rate of 4% in the final quarter of last year, while capital investment plummeted by 30.6%. Industrial output dropped at an annual rate of 12.5%, with the construction sector showing a fall of 24%.
For 2008 as a whole, construction output fell 16% compared with 2007, consumer spending was down 0.8% and capital investment fell by almost 20%.
Separate CSO figures showed that the current account deficit on the balance of payment fell to its lowest level in four years in the final quarter of 2008.
The deficit for Q4 was €133m, bringing the deficit for the full year to €8,375m. The merchandise surplus grew to almost €7.6 billion in Q4, mainly due to a significant fall in imports. The deficit on invisibles was little changed at €7.7 billion. Within this, services exports were €300m higher than a year earlier, boosted by computer service exports, but service imports grew more quickly.
