The economy continued to grow strongly in the first three months of this year, according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Gross Domestic Product grew by 13.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2001, compared with 11.5 per cent for the corresponding period last year.
The CSO said Gross National Product, which excludes profit repatriations by foreign multinationals, grew by an annual rate of 11.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2001.
But the rate of consumer spending was found to have dropped significantly to an annual rate of 5.7 per cent, compared with 8.7 per cent in the last quarter of 2001.
The CSO said capital investment was strong at 13 per cent following relatively low increases of 2.4 per cent and 3.5 per cent in the last two quarters of 2000.
Industrial output was up 26 per cent on an annual basis, but the CSO said this is related to the relatively low figure in the corresponding quarter of 2000.
