Sectors in which indigenous Irish companies are dominant grew almost 4 per cent last year while those parts of the economy with a substantial volume of multinational companies saw growth of 13.9 per cent, according to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Just under €300 billion was added to economic output last year, an overall rise of 7.9 per cent on the previous year. The CSO’s data, which measures economic growth when the activity of multinationals is stripped out, shows that sectors mostly dominated by Irish companies contributed €172 billion of the total.
It found that, of those sectors which aren’t dominated by multinationals, growth was positive in the retail sector, including the sale and repair of motor vehicles, which grew 6.2 per cent. The agrifood, forestry and fishing sector showed a year-on-year decline of 3.5 per cent in 2018 compared with the previous year.
This data series examines Gross Value Added, a measure broadly similar to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The series separates out the proportion of GDP growth that comes from multinationals, including those in the pharmaceutical and information technology sectors.
Among the larger multinational-dominated sectors, growth of 35.3 per cent was seen in publishing, audio-visual and broadcasting activities. Manufacturing of chemicals and chemical products posted growth of 46.1 per cent.
