Ireland's Q2 GDP down 3 pct year-on-year

DUBLIN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Ireland's gross domestic product (GDP) amounted to 82.3 billion euros (about 97.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the second quarter (Q2) of this year, down 3 percent compared with the same quarter of last year, according to the initial estimates released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Monday.

In Q2 2020, all sectors except the industry sector in the country exhibited year-on-year declines due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the sector of distribution, transport, hotels and restaurants recording a decrease of 32 percent, said the CSO.

Year-on-year contractions were also recorded in the sectors of construction (down 34.6 percent), agriculture (down 46.9 percent), professional & administrative services (down 28.1 percent) and arts & entertainment (down 67.9 percent), it said.

The information & communication sector declined 4.3 percent year-on-year while the sector of public administration, education and health exhibited a small decline of 0.2 percent, it said, adding that the sectors of finance & insurance and real estate declined by 3.7 percent and 4.4 percent respectively.

The industry sector excluding construction made a positive contribution to the Q2 result, up 15.9 percent, said the CSO.

Commenting on the CSO figures, Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said in a statement that the country's GDP decline in the second quarter is not as severe as in other advanced economies due to the resilience of the country's exports.

According to the CSO, Ireland exported a total of 56 billion euros worth of goods in Q2 this year, an increase of 1.6 billion euros or 3 percent from the same period last year.

Irish economy is an export-oriented economy. In recent years, Ireland has been paying more and more attention to the marketing of its goods in emerging economies such as China apart from continuing to tap the potential of its traditional export markets in the European Union, Britain and the United States.

Statistics from the CSO showed that in the first half of this year, Ireland exported a total of 5.73 billion euros (about 6.77 billion U.S. dollars) worth of goods to China, up nearly 39 percent from the same period last year, making China the fifth largest market of the Irish exported goods in the world. (1 euro = 1.181 U.S. dollars)