Ireland's economic output slumped in the first quarter of 2012, but revised growth figures from the previous quarter helped the country to escape a technical recession, the country's statistics agency said Thursday.

Thursday's report from the Central Statistics Office says Ireland's gross domestic product fell 1.1 percent in the January-March quarter. But it said the economy actually grew 0.7 percent in the final quarter of 2011, not the 0.2 percent decline originally announced.

This revision means Ireland now says its GDP grew 1.4 percent in 2011, double its previous estimate and by far the strongest performance of any European country receiving an international bailout.

A recession is defined as two straight quarters of economic decline.