Strong growth for NI economy in final quarter of 2021

Northern Ireland's economy grew strongly in the final quarter of 2021, official data has suggested.

Output was 1.2% higher in those months than in the previous quarter, the NI Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) said.

That meant output was at a 13-year high, at a level last exceeded in the middle of 2008.

However, growth was slightly below the UK average for the quarter, with UK GDP expanding by 1.3%.

Year-on-year growth was also lower for Northern Ireland: 4.9% compared to 6.6% for the UK.

Nisra said that on longer timescales, Northern Ireland's performance was better than the recent average UK performance.

On a rolling annual average (the average of the most recent four quarters compared to the average of the previous four quarters) Northern Ireland growth was 7.6% compared to 7.4% for the UK as a whole.

On a biennial basis, which roughly covers the economic hit and subsequent recovery from the pandemic, Northern Ireland performed better: growth of 3.4% compared to no change for the UK.

The growth in the final quarter of the year was driven by the services sector, which is the dominant sector of the economy.

That was despite a relatively weak performance among retailers.

Nisra said that of the 1.2% growth, services contributed by 0.7 percentage points, with all other sectors also showing a positive contribution: production (which is mainly manufacturing) contributing 0.2 percentage points, construction and the public sector each contributing 0.1 percentage points.

It is likely that the economy has weakened significantly during the start of 2022, as businesses and consumers deal with much higher energy prices, and some one-off public spending on Covid rolls off.