No time to lose the head on economy ahead of Budget 2017

Following the debacle of the 2015 growth revisions that accompanied the first quarter of 2016 growth numbers in July, the CSO’s second quarter growth numbers, released earlier this week, represented a pretty tame affair.

GDP in the second quarter was 4.1% ahead of the second quarter of last year and GNP was up by 4.6%.

While these growth numbers, in themselves, are strong, they are nothing like as strong as the 2015 numbers or, indeed, the first quarter numbers.