DUBLIN, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Ireland's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of this year stood at 74.46 billion euros (87 billion U.S. dollars) , up 8.95 percent over the same period last year, said Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Ireland on Thursday.

Information and Communication made the most positive contribution to the Q2 result, rising by 37.4 percent with Construction recording an increase of 11.5 percent, said the CSO.

Strong growths were also recorded in Distribution, Transport, Hotels and Restaurants (7.6 percent), Industry excluding Construction (6.3 percent), and Financial and Insurance (5.4 percent), it said.

Agriculture activities showed a decline of 8.3 percent year-one-year while Arts and Entertainment declined by 6.6 percent compared with Q2 2017, it added.

During the first half of this year, Ireland's GDP totalled 148.51 billion euros, up 9.12 percent over a year ago, said the CSO.

Of the country's total GDP in the first six months of this year, services took the lions share, accounting for 97.11 billion euros or 65.4 percent, industry including construction accounted for 49.97 billion euros or 33.6 percent, and agriculture accounted for 1.43 billion euros or one percent, it said. (1 euro=1.169 U.S. dollars)