New figures show that the Irish economy shrank slightly last year. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) says activity fell by 0.3% in 2013.

It compares to economic growth of just under 1% in 2012. The CSO says the decline is driven by a fall in personal spending and a drop in exports.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, GDP for the fourth quarter fell by 2.3% compared with the previous quarter, while GNP increased by 0.2% over the same period.

There was an overall decline of 3.3% in industry - while the distribution, transport, software and communications sectors fell by 2.5%. Public administration and defence also saw a drop of 4.6%.

 

But in contrast the areas of agriculture, forestry and fisheries recorded a strong annual increase of 6.9%.

On the expenditure side, imports outpaced exports last year - which the CSO says is a reversal in the trend of recent years.

The combined effect resulted in a decline of €1,028 million in net exports.

"This fall, in addition to the aggregate 0.1% decrease in total domestic demand led to an overall decline in real GDP in 2013 of -0.3%" it says.

Personal consumption in 2013 fell by 1.1%, while government expenditure was 0.5% down on 2012.

KBC Bank Chief Economist Austin Hughes says the data paints a mixed picture.