Economy - overview: The economy is small and trade dependent. Agriculture, once the most important sector, is now dwarfed by industry, which accounts for 38% of GDP, about 80% of exports, and employs 26% of the labor force. Although exports remain the primary engine for Ireland's robust growth, the economy is also benefiting from a rise in consumer spending and recovery in both construction and business investment. Since the 1980s, 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.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $59.9 billion (1996 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 7% (1996 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $16,800 (1996 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 8.9% industry: 38.6% services: 52.5% (1994)
Inflation rate - consumer price index: 1.8% (1996 est.)
Labor force: total: 1.474 million (1996 est.) by occupation: services 62.3%, manufacturing and construction 26.0%, agriculture, forestry, and fishing 10.6%, utilities 1.1% (1996 est.)
Unemployment rate: 11.9% (April 1996)
Budget: revenues : $22.6 billion expenditures: $23.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $4.3 billion (1995)
Industries: food products, brewing, textiles, clothing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery, transportation equipment, glass and crystal