DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's economy grew by 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to the end of June to stand 4.1 percent higher than a year ago, data showed on Wednesday.
The relevance of using GDP to measure the true health of the Ireland's open economy was called into question in July when growth for 2015 was revised up to 26 percent after a massive revision to the stock of capital assets.
The data in July also showed that first quarter GDP fell by 2.1 percent quarter-on-quarter despite all other secondary data suggesting three months of growth and those figures were unchanged on Wednesday.
Personal consumption in the second quarter fell by 0.5 percent after growing by 0.7 percent in the three months previous, less than originally estimated.
Even before last year's revisions, Irish economic growth outpaced the rest of Europe for the last two years and will do so again this year if the government meets its forecast for an expansion of 4.9 percent.
"After the extraordinary step shift of 2015, it looks like the economy is reverting to what is still very strong growth by international standards," said KBC chief economist Austin Hughes.
"But it may be a little more moderate than previously envisaged. It looks like we might see growth of around 4 percent for the year."