Quarterly Bulletin No.1 2018

Irish economy continues strong performance as first forecasts for 2019 published.

Read our latest assessment of the Irish and euro area economies in our latest Quarterly Bulletin.

Quarterly Bulletin was published on 26 January 2018.

Quarterly Bulletin - Q1 2018 | pdf 4464 KB

Read the Forecast Summary Table | pdf 4438 KB.

Disclaimer: The direct pdf page links do not work for users who are browsing on Safari.

The Irish economy continues to grow at a strong pace with GDP forecast to increase by 4.4 per cent this year. Growth continues to be driven by the strength of activity on the domestic side of the economy, which is benefiting from strong and broad-based employment growth.

Looking ahead, the outlook is positive although downside risks remain in relation to external factors such as Brexit and international corporate tax policy issues.

Read this chapter in full: Irish Economy | pdf 4464 KB.

Disclaimer: The direct pdf page links do not work for users who are browsing on Safari.

Continuing improvements in the economic environment and an accommodative monetary policy contributed towards improved financing conditions during late 2017. Households continued to reduce debt to more sustainable levels over the year. Household debt is now at its lowest level since late 2005. Furthermore, mortgage arrears continued to fall and there was further movement towards more sustainable long-term solutions.

Government net financial wealth also continued to increase over Q2 2017. In December, the Government repaid the outstanding IMF loan facility in full (€4.5 billion), as well as the bilateral loans from Sweden (€0.6 billion) and Denmark (€0.4 billion). These early repayments further reduce the Exchequer debt service bill by an estimated €150 million over the remaining life of the loans.

Non-financial private-sector enterprises continued on a net basis to repay loans with Irish credit institutions, as repayments outstripped borrowing during Q3 2017, albeit to a lesser extent than in previous quarters.

Read this chapter in full: Financing Developments in the Irish Economy.

Disclaimer: The direct pdf page links do not work for users who are browsing on Safari.

The new quarterly insurance corporations statistics provides information on the assets and liabilities of life, non-life and reinsurance corporations resident in Ireland. The balance sheet is broken down by sector, geography and type of financial instrument. In addition, the new statistics includes an annual return which provides the geographical breakdown of total premiums written by insurance corporations in Ireland.

This new dataset enhances analysis of the Irish insurance market and its interlinkages with other sectors.

Read the signed article in full | pdf 4464 KB.

Disclaimer: The direct pdf page links do not work for users who are browsing on Safari.

Read the full Statistical Appendix | pdf 4464 KB.

Disclaimer: The direct pdf page links do not work for users who are browsing on Safari.