Numbers out of work may hit 15%, says Central Bank

THE Central Bank warned yesterday that unemployment will hit 15% next year and serious cuts in spending rather than increases in taxes will be needed to tackle the crisis.

The bank’s governor John Hurley also predicted the economy will contract by 8.3% this year, by a further 3% in 2010, and any recovery will not begin to take hold for another two years.

The governor said the global economic crisis was the most serious since the Great Depression and, combined with a number of domestic vulnerabilities, created a particularly difficult situation in Ireland.