Overview: The economy is small and trade dependent. Agriculture, once the most important sector, is now dwarfed by industry, which accounts for 37% of GDP, about 80% of exports, and employs 28% of the labor force. Since 1987, real GDP growth, led by exports, has averaged 4% annually. Over the same period, inflation has fallen sharply and chronic trade deficits have been transformed into annual surpluses. Unemployment remains a serious problem, however, and job creation is the main focus of government policy. To ease unemployment, Dublin aggressively courts foreign investors and recently created a new industrial development agency to aid small indigenous firms. Government assistance is constrained by Dublin's continuing deficit reduction measures.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $46.3 billion (1993)

National product real growth rate: 2.7% (1993)

National product per capita: $13,100 (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.7% (1994 est.)

Unemployment rate: 16% (1994 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $16 billion
expenditures: $16.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $1.6 billion (1992 est.)

Exports: $28.3 billion (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities: chemicals, data processing equipment, industrial machinery, live animals, animal products
partners: EC 75% (UK 32%, Germany 13%, France 10%), US 9%

Imports: $23.3 billion (c.i.f., 1992)
commodities: food, animal feed, data processing equipment, petroleum and petroleum products, machinery, textiles, clothing
partners: EC 66% (UK 41%, Germany 8%, Netherlands 4%), US 15%

External debt: $17.6 billion (1992)

Industrial production: growth rate 11.5% (1992); accounts for 37% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 5,000,000 kW
production: 14.5 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 4,120 kWh (1992)

Industries: food products, brewing, textiles, clothing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery, transportation equipment, glass and crystal

Agriculture: accounts for 8% of GDP and 13% of the labor force; principal crops - turnips, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, wheat; livestock - meat and dairy products; 85% self-sufficient in food; food shortages include bread grain, fruits, vegetables

Illicit drugs: transshipment point for hashish from North Africa to the UK and Netherlands

Economic aid:
donor: ODA commitments (1980-89), $90 million

Currency: 1 Irish pound (#Ir) = 100 pence
Exchange rates: Irish pounds (#Ir) per US$1 - 0.6978 (January 1994), 0.6816 (1993), 0.5864 (1992), 0.6190 (1991), 0.6030 (1990), 0.7472 (1989)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Ireland on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Ireland Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Ireland Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.