GDP now understates strength of Irish economy [Video]

The economy as measured by modified domestic demand (MDD) will grow 2.4% this year, PwC has said in its Q4 quarterly economic digest.

The professional services group credited Ireland’s highly educated workforce, ability to attract foreign direct investment and strong growth in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors for its projection.

Inflation in the services sector is “proving stubborn,” however, and will average 4% for the full year, and unemployment will remain low at 4.3% as the economy nears full capacity with 1m more people in work now than in 2000.

PwC warned that as “a small, open economy,” Ireland remains susceptible to shifts in US trade policy and vulnerable to geopolitical dynamics such as the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Domestically, Ireland’s infrastructure deficit “poses a challenge to sustained growth.”

Ireland has grown rapidly in GDP terms over the past decade, powered by the multinational-dominated tech and pharma sectors, so much so that MDD, which strips out multinational …