The economy in Derry/Londonderry has contracted 21% since the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007.
On 9 July 2021, the Derry Journal published an article about a report, "Comparison of the economic growth of Derry and Belfast since the Good Friday Agreement (1998)", written in 2018 by Cormac Duffy for Derry University Group (DUG) campaign group. The report used Gross Value Added (GVA) data to compare economic performance across the local authorities of Belfast, Derry City and Stranbane, and Lincoln (England). Among the report’s key findings is the claim: "Derry economy has contracted 21% since the restoration of Stormont in 2007." [...] The central claim of the report that the Derry and Strabane area economy has contracted by 21% since 2007 appears to be inaccurate on a number of fronts: - between 2007 and 2015, where the DUG assessment stops, GVA (adjusted for inflation to 2018 prices) grew by less than 1%, from £2.52bn to £2.55bn; and - since the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007 to 2019, the latest year for which ONS data is available, the Derry and Strabane area economy grew by 15.4%, from £2.524bn to £2.912bn (shown in figure below).