DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's economy steadied in the third quarter, growing 0.1 percent on a quarterly basis after a robust first-half performance, but remains on track to be the fastest-growing economy in Europe this year, data showed on Thursday.
Third-quarter growth was weaker than some analysts expected. However, after the economy surged in the first six months of this year, little if any quarter-on-quarter growth is needed for the rest of the year to meet government projections for gross domestic product (GDP) to expand by almost 5 percent this year.
The third successive period of quarterly growth followed an expansion of 1.1 percent from April to June that saw GDP rise a hefty 7.3 percent year-on-year, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said on Thursday, revising the figures down a touch.
The economy grew 3.5 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, according to Thursday's data.
After exiting its EU/IMF bailout programme last year, Ireland is outperforming the rest of the euro zone, where growth is faltering.
"This confirms we are on course to be the fastest economy in Europe. It's exceptionally strong growth, though maybe a little weaker that some had hoped after the second-quarter figures," said Conall Mac Coille, chief economist at Davy Stockbrokers.
"These numbers indicated we'll achieve the GDP growth of around 5 percent we expected. It shows the 7.7 percent year-on-year growth in the first half was very volatile and we're seeing more sedate flat growth in the second half."
The CSO revised down first-half annual growth to 7.3 percent on Thursday, from 7.7 percent.
The impressive start to the year, which saw employment and exports grow sharply prompted the government to upgrade its 2014 growth forecast three times in September and it expects GDP growth of 4.7 percent for the year as a whole.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries; Editing by Susan Fenton)