Ireland's gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter (Q2) of this year increased by 21.6 percent year-on-year to reach 109.3 billion euros (about 130 billion U.S. dollars), said the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO), Trend reports citing Xinhua.
The largest increase was recorded in the country's distribution, transport, hotels and restaurants sector which reported a year-on-year increase of 39.4 percent in Q2, followed by the construction sector (up 29.1 percent) and the industry sector excluding construction (up 27.1 percent), said the CSO.
All the other sectors had also recorded year-on-year increases in Q2 except for the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector which exhibited a fall of 5.9 percent, it said.
Commenting on the Q2 performance of the Irish economy, Jennifer Banim, assistant director general of the CSO, said that "Easing of COVID-19 related restrictions led to higher levels of economic activity for many of the sectors focused on the domestic market in Q2 2021."
Starting from April, the Irish government embarked on a road to gradually reopen its society and economy by removing a number of lockdown measures adopted at the end of last year when the country was hit by the third wave of the pandemic.
In mid-April, the Irish government allowed the construction sector to resume its work on residential projects before all the construction projects were permitted to restart in early May.
In early June, all the restaurants, cafes and bars in the country were allowed to provide outdoor services.