DUBLIN, July 12 Reuters Ireland39;s domestic economy last year grew much faster than initially estimated, with growth revised sharply higher to 2.6 from 0.5 and momentum continuing into the first quarter of this year, official data showed on Friday.

With Ireland39;s large multinational sector often distorting gross domestic product GDP, the government and statisticians prefer to focus on modified domestic demand MDD to gauge the strength of the economy.

Firstquarter MDD was marked down slightly to 1.0 from a provisional reading of 1.4 on Friday, but the upward revisions for 2023 showed consumers handled a costofliving crunch much better than initially thought.

The revision was driven by a mark up in personal consumption to 4.8 from the 3.1 expansion initially seen and 4.3 growth in government spending some of it handed directly to people to help offset the impact of higher inflation up from a 1.7 estimate.

GDP, which is still the measure used to calculate Ireland39;s share of activity across the euro zone, contracted by 5.5 last year, a faster rate than the 3.2 initially estimated due to sharper drops in multinational dominated sectors.

GDP rose by 0.7 quarteronquarter in the first three months of 2024 versus an initial estimate of 0.9, the Central Statistics Office said.

Irish GDP had risen rapidly in recent years and by as much as 16.3 in 2021, twice the rate of MDD growth.

Looking ahead, inflationary pressures have eased considerably. This should boost…