IRELAND’S domestic economy grew by 4.9% last year which was faster than had been expected, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

Analysis of the data reveals that the strong performance was partly driven by rising personal spending which was up 2.9% year on year.

There was a sharp increase in Gross Domestic Product last year (up 12.3%) - a measure of economic growth which includes the contribution from multinationals.

The share of the economy which was dominated by foreign owned companies expanded by a significant 25%.

Ireland’s economic growth was far above other EU countries which all had GDP growth of less than 4%, in part due to a spike in net exports which rose by €22.9bn as multinationals increased exports ahead of the expected US tariffs.

The CSO figures show the construction sector was up 9.1% with building of new homes up 19.4%.

The preliminary figures, which will be updated later in the year, also reveal that government spending was up 4.1%.