dublin dec 3 reuters  irish domestic economic growth was slightly below expectations in the third quarter and is likely to slow by yearend finance minister paschal donohoe said as the government considered reimposing more covid19 restrictions on friday modified domestic demand which covers personal government and investment spending grew by 14 quarteronquarter and 53 yearonyear between july and september a period when most covid19 curbs were removed central statistics office cso data showed however donohoe said modest consumer spending growth of 05 was particularly disappointing given vat returns are more than 7 ahead of forecast so far this year and the unemployment rate has fallen to 69 from 20 a year ago todays figures while confirming the continued growth in the domestic economy are slightly below expectations particularly on the consumer spending side donohoe said in a statement early indications point towards an easing in domestic growth rates in the domestic economy in the fourth quarter however i am confident that once we overcome this further wave of the virus our economy and our jobs market will continue to strengthen donohoe said the more muted current quarter is partly due to pentup demand tapering off and incerased consumer caution with covid19 cases near record highs even though 91 of eligible people over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated overall gross domestic product grew gdp by 09 on the quarter and was 114 higher than a year ago the government has cautioned against using this measure to gauge activity in the economy due to the ways in which multinationals can distort irish gdp modified domestic demand which is more closely watched by economists was up 49 yeartodate following a sharp secondquarter rise but 12 lower than the corresponding prepandemic ninemonth period of 2019 donohoes department forecast in the october budget that modified domestic demand would grow by 52 for the year as a whole and by 65 next year the forecasts for next year were based on the phasing out of most remaining covid19 restrictions however the government reimposed a midnight curfew on hospitality venues last month and is meeting later on friday to discuss possible further curbs reporting by padraic halpin and conor humphries editing by john stonestreet and louise heavens