Ireland’s economy shrank in the last three months of 2025, according to early estimates from the statistics agency. The latest GDP decline was mainly driven by contraction in the multinational dominated Industry sector, the CSO said. That will be clearer when the more definitive Quarterly National Accounts are published in early March, which drawn on additional data sources. Regardless of the final numbers for Q4 the Irish economy grew strongly in 2025 as a whole, in GDP terms. GDP is the standard measure used to compare economies but in the case of Ireland it is volatile even at the best of tines because of the outsized impact of multinationals.

Source: Irish Independent January 29, 2026 12:12 UTC