These charts are insane. 🤯
Over half of the EU’s GDP growth came from Ireland, a country that makes up just 1% of the bloc’s population.
GDP growth, Q1 2025 vs Q4 2024:
🇮🇪 +€12.8B | +9.7%
🇪🇺 +€19.6B | +0.6%
To put it in perspective:
The second fastest-growing economy was Malta, at "just" +2.1%.
Ireland is a complete outlier.
How is this even possible?
1️⃣ A tax haven for Big Tech and Pharma (and others).
Ireland’s 12.5% corporate tax rate has long attracted global giants, especially from the US.
They register their IP there, post profits to pay low taxes and move those profits back home. This scheme clearly inflates GDP.
2️⃣ Trump’s tariffs reshuffled pharma supply chains.
US-bound drugs are often manufactured in Ireland. (for same reason as above)
Facing tariff uncertainty, companies front-loaded shipments before Trump’s deadline, temporarily boosting "exports".
But they're not real exports, it's just tax planning.
There’s even a term for this statistical illusion:
“Leprechaun economics”.
It was first coined in 2015, when Apple famously shifted billions through Ireland.
Now it’s back in fashion.
But while tech and AI giants continue their frantic race (OpenAI and Antrophic have large presence in Ireland), normal workers are being left behind.
Because while GDP soared +9.7%,
GNP actually fell -2.1%. 📉
Ireland has by far the largest GDP–GNP gap in Europe.
👉 GDP counts what companies produce inside Ireland.
👉 GNP subtracts what’s sent abroad after.
Normally the two metrics are very close.
Not in Ireland.
In Q1 2025 there was a huge €55bn gap, or 38% of GDP.
For comparison, Italy had a gap of ~€1bn (or 0.2% of GDP), normal for a western country.
The result?
Locals are worse off than a quarter earlier, despite a massive GDP growth.
While this is no new phenomenon, the effects are now more visible and Ireland is just the front-runner.
As AI and tech investment and compensations explode, so does the distortion.
Drugs are manufactured in Ireland only to be re-imported to the US, raising prices and inflating trade imbalances.
Innovation always comes at a price.
The question is: who pays it?
