Ireland’s onshore economy expanded by 4.9% in 2025, supported by a 1.0% increase in activity in the last three months of the year, the Central Statistics Office reported on Thursday.
Officials highlighted the modified domestic demand metric, which is designed to measure underlying economic strength by removing distortions associated with Ireland’s large multinational sector. That indicator showed continued momentum, following a 1.8% rise in 2024.
In the fourth quarter, modified domestic demand climbed 1.0% from the prior quarter and rose 6.7% compared with the same quarter a year earlier. The third quarter’s figure for modified domestic demand was revised upward to a 2.5% quarter-on-quarter gain from an earlier estimate of 2.3%, while the year-on-year rate for that period remained at 5.1%.
By contrast, headline measures of output displayed larger swings tied to multinational trade flows. Ireland’s gross domestic product increased 12.3% for the full year 2025, a rise the statistics office said was driven by a substantial expansion in pharmaceutical exports to the United States. Separate data released alongside the headline figures attributed that surge to stockpiling ahead of potential tariffs.
Quarterly GDP showed greater volatility. Output in the fourth quarter fell 3.8% from the third quarter, a steeper decline than the preliminary estimate of a 0.6% drop. On a year-on-year basis, fourth-quarter GDP growth came in at 2.2%, lower than the initial estimate of 3.7%.
The third quarter’s GDP data were also revised. The quarter was adjusted to show no change from the previous quarter, instead of the earlier estimate of a 0.3% contraction. The year-on-year rate for the third quarter was revised up to 11.2% from a prior figure of 10.8%.
These updates underscore the divergence between measures aimed at capturing domestic demand and headline GDP outcomes that can be heavily influenced by multinational trade and inventory movements in sectors such as pharmaceuticals.