Quarterly national accounts released by the Central Statistics Office in September showed that Ireland’s economy officially entered recession. Ireland’s GDP contracted by 6.1 percent during the second quarter of 2020. A recession is defined as the GDP contracting two quarters in a row.

Consumer spending decreased by 19.6 percent, while industry and government spending increased by 7.5 percent. Overall economic activity was partly offset by an increase of €37.8 billion in net exports of goods and services in the second quarter.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe reportedly stated that there has been a strong pick-up in the third quarter of this year, according to indicators available to Government, and that Ireland compares favourably against the UK, eurozone and the US, where GDP declined by considerably more in the same period.