Northern Ireland’s economic output increased by 0.4% over the second quarter of 2024 and by 2.3% over the year. Output, meanwhile, was up by 1.6% on a rolling four quarters basis to June 2024 in another encouraging set of economic statistics.
NI economic output is now 8.1% above the pre-pandemic level seen in Quarter 4 2019.
In terms of specific sectors, the largest upward contributions to change this quarter came from increased activity in the Construction sector (0.3 pps) and the Services sector (0.2 pps). This positive contribution was partially offset by a decrease in the Agriculture sector (0.1 pps).
Although the measures are not produced on a fully equivalent basis, comparisons with the UK show that both NI and UK grew over the quarter (0.4% vs 0.6%). NI had stronger growth than the UK over the year (2.3% vs 0.9%) and a stronger growth over the rolling annual average period (1.6% vs 0.3%). Comparing against the pre-pandemic quarter (Quarter 4 2019) economic activity in NI has also shown stronger growth than the UK (8.1% vs 2.4%).
NI’s private sector output as measured by the NICEI increased by 0.5% over the quarter and by 3.0% over the year. Private sector output increased by 1.8% on a rolling four quarter basis and by 8.7% when compared to pre-pandemic levels recorded in Quarter 4 2019.
The NICEI Public Sector (employee jobs) index decreased by 0.2% over the quarter, and increased by 0.1% over the year, by 0.9% on a rolling four quarter basis and by 6.0% compared to pre-pandemic levels.