OECD predicts 2.6% growth in 2010

IRELAND will experience a severe recession and growth will not return until 2010, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Competitiveness must also improve, said the group. The Paris-based body said activity is contracting as the severe housing market correction has weakened the wider Irish economy, adding that the weakness will persist well into 2009.

“Growth will recover in 2010 as the housing construction cycle bottoms out and the financial turmoil wanes,” it said. Real GDP growth, it says, will be 2.6% in 2010, from -1.6% in 2009 and -1.7% in 2008.