The domestic economy grew by a healthy 4.7% last year, latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
Personal spending on goods and services, a key measure of activity, was up 2.6% in 2025.
There was 7.5% growth in exports in 2025 driven by an increase in exports of goods of 15.4% while total imports rose by 9.6%.
The growth figure for the domestic economy of 4.7% for 2025 is a marginal downward revision from the previous 4.9% estimate from the CSO.
Government spending of goods and services increased by 3.2% last year.
Gross Domestic Product, a measure of the economy which includes the impact of multinationals, was up 8% last year.
In 2025 the multinational dominated sector of the economy expanded by 14.5%.
“There were higher levels of economic activity for most sectors focused on the domestic market in 2025 including the construction sector which expanded by 7.2%, real estate activities increased by 4.9% and agriculture, forestry and fishing which grew by 3.6%,” the CSO’s assistant director Chris Sibley said.
GDP in the first quarter of 2026 was down 7% which marked a significant change from an earlier estimate of a fall of 12% for the first three months which had affected the growth figures for the entire EU.
During 2025 there was also a surge in exports of weight loss drugs, which was a key factor in driving figures last year.
But there has been a significant drop in exports in the first three months of this year from pharmaceutical companies, which has resulted in lower GDP figures in the first three months of this year.
Quarterly GDP figures are frequently highly volatile because of the effects of multinationals.
The domestic economy expanded by 0.3% in the first three months of this year.
Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said today’s CSO figures confirm that the domestic economy continued to grow strongly last year.
“Rising real incomes, boosted by a robust labour market, supported consumer spending, which grew solidly by 2½ per cent,” Minister Harris said.
“At the same time, investment activity benefitted from the expansion in housing output and significant capital spending in the multinational sector. Overall, both Modified Domestic Demand and Modified Gross National Income increased by 4.7% in 2025,” he noted.
“Today’s data also confirm that this momentum continued into the first quarter of this year with Modified Domestic Demand growing at an annual rate of 3½ per cent,” he added.
The Minister said that geopolitical events in the first half of this year underline the importance of continuing to build up resilience to future shocks and tackle longer-term structural challenges, including by accelerating the transition away from fossil fuel imports.
