The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first quarter of 2022 amounted to €3,784.5 million - registering an increase of €366.7 million, according to provisional estimates.
The National Statistics Office said the increase was equivalent to 10.7%, when compared to the same quarter of 2021. In volume terms, the GDP rose by 7.6 per cent.
The production approach
During the first quarter of 2022, Gross Value Added (GVA) rose by 10.8% in nominal terms and 6.9% in volume terms, when compared to the corresponding quarter of 2021.
The drivers behind this 6.9 per cent growth were service activities and industry, with a contribution of 7 percentage points and 0.1 percentage points, respectively.
Conversely, construction had a negative contribution of 0.2 percentage points. Agriculture and fishing had a neutral impact on GVA growth in volume terms.
Compared to the same quarter last year, service activities increased by 8.2% and Industry by 1.5% in volume terms.
A drop of 9.5% and 3.9% was recorded in agriculture and fishing activities, and construction respectively.
The increase in services was mainly driven by: accommodation and food service activities (243.4%), information and communication (14.3%), wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (16.5%), arts, entertainment and recreation (9.2%), and professional, scientific and technical activities (4.2%)1.
Net taxes on products contributed positively toward GDP growth, with an increase of 14% in volume terms.
The expenditure approach
The expenditure approach is another method used to calculate GDP and is derived by adding the final consumption expenditure of households, general government, and non-profit institutions serving households, gross capital formation and net exports.
The contribution of domestic demand to the year-on-year GDP growth rate in volume terms was 4.3 percentage points, of which 3.3 were due to final consumption expenditure and 1 to GCF.
External demand also registered a positive contribution of 3.2 percentage points, with 14 percentage points attributable to exports and 10.8 percentage points explained by imports.
In the first quarter of 2022, final consumption expenditure witnessed an increase of 5.2% in volume terms. This was the result of increases in household expenditure of 9.7% and in the expenditure of NPISHs of 5.3%. Meanwhile, general government expenditure registered a drop of 3%.
Gross Fixed Capital Formation rose by 6.3% in volume terms. This increase was mainly attributable to investment in machinery and equipment.
Exports and imports of goods and services in volume terms rose by 9.2% and 7.9%, respectively.
The income approach
The third approach to measure economic activity is the income approach, which shows how GDP is distributed among compensation of employees, an operating surplus of enterprises and taxes on production and imports net of subsidies.
Compared to the first quarter of 2021, the €366.7 million increase in nominal GDP was the result of an €85.9 million increase in compensation of employees, a €218.4 million rise in gross operating surplus and mixed-income, and an increase of €62.3 million in net taxation on production and imports.
Gross National Income
GNI differs from the GDP measure in terms of net compensation receipts, net property income receivable and net taxes receivable on production and imports from abroad.
Considering the effects of income and taxation paid and received by residents to and from the rest of the world, GNI at market prices for the first quarter of 2022 was estimated at €3,492.8 million.