The earlier estimate was for 5.7pc.
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They also reveal that exports increased by 34.4% between 2014 and 2015, while imports rose by 21.7%.
Consumer spending, which was unaffected by Tuesday’s reclassifications, grew by 4.5 percent past year and was up 2.1 percent quarter-on-quarter from January to March, the fastest quarterly growth since the 2008 financial crisis. GNP rose by 1.3pc, the CSO said. GNP – which strips out the effects of the multi-national sector – advanced by 10.6 per cent year-on-year.
The fall in GDP in the first three months of this year was mainly due to a 3.5 per cent fall in overall domestic demand.
“The reality is that there has been a statistical reclassification of the Irish economy, and as a result measured GDP a year ago rose by 26%”. Finance Minister Michael Noonan said steadily increasing tax revenues and a near halving of the unemployment rate to 7.8% since 2012 also pointed to a strong economic recovery.
An increase in aircraft imports for global leasing and the reclassifications of corporate balance sheets through tax inversions into Ireland were among the reasons for the GDP figures more than tripling.
Speaking from Brussels where he is attending a monthly meeting of EU Finance Ministers, Mr Noonan said the CSO figures show that peoples’ lives are improving with more at work than at any time since the onset of the downturn.
“We no longer need to impose swingeing cuts to public services rather we have room to invest in services and infrastructure”.
There are fears within Ireland that the performance of the country’s economy, which is closely linked to the United Kingdom, will take a hit from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, with forecasts that an overall GDP cut of 1.6% could occur by 2021 as a result of Brexit.
The comments come after economist Jim Power told the Irish Independent that the figure was “meaningless”.
“There’s clearly a lot of balance sheet accounting transactions going on that are seriously distorting what is happening in the economy”.
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Consumer spending, which was unaffected by Tuesday’s reclassifications, grew by 4.5% a year ago and was up 2.1% quarter-on-quarter from January to March, the fastest quarterly growth since the 2008 financial crisis. “I think in terms of worldwide interpretation to what’s going on here, it’s a meaningless exercise”.
