DUBLIN - Ireland's domestic economy shrank by 1% quarter-on-quarter during the first three months of the year which began with the economy in a COVID-19 lockdown and ended with inflation beginning to climb rapidly, data showed on Friday.

Gross domestic product (GDP), a broader measure of economic activity, grew by 10.8% on the quarter. The government has long cautioned against using this measure due to the ways Ireland's large multinational sector can distort it.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said growth of 14.1% in the multinational dominated sectors drove virtually all of the jump in GDP. While sectors focused on the domestic market rose by 7.6%, personal spending on goods and services fell 0.7%, it said.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Toby Chopra)