Central Bank ups growth projections
The economy is forecast to grow by 2.5% this year, the Central Bank has said.
In its latest quarterly bulletin, the authority has revised up its predictions for how business will fare with the value of all goods and services in the country, Gross Domestic Product, said to have grown by 0.2% last year and expected to improve by 3.3% in 2015.
On the homegrown front, Irish owned business, as measured by Gross National Product, is also estimated to perform well with figures for last year of 3.2% and this year of 2.8%.
And in further signs of continued improvement after years of recession, the Central Bank said the unemployment rate for this year will settle at 11.4% and next year it is expected to fall to 10.5%.
Its commentary on the state of the economy the authority said the recovery has been showing a stronger trend than had been predicted.
It pointed to Ireland’s exports as being the significant driver behind the improvements since late last year and also that the performance of business in the first three months of the year was unexpectedly strong.
The Central Bank had previously forecast that the economy would contract by 0.3% this year.
“This is consistent with the signals that have been emerging from a broad range of other indicators, particularly employment data, which have been pointing to a gradually strengthening recovery in economic activity for some time now,” the bank said.
Its report predicts that consumer demand is expected to add to the revival of the economy this year.
“The 2015 growth projections are based on consensus assumptions from the main international institutions. Uncertainty attaches to these forecasts, however, and they remain sensitive to developments in the international and European economy,” the bank said.
