Economy to pull out of recession next year

BUSINESS leaders forecast the Irish economy will pull out of recession next year and the worst fears for Ireland may have been “overcooked”, but estimate 250,000 jobs from 2007’s 2.12 million peak will be shed by 2010.

IBEC’s senior economist Fergal O’Brien said the world economy is pulling out of the worst recession since World War II.

“This is great news for an open economy such as Ireland; indeed, our worst fears may turn out to have been just a little overcooked. The drop in GDP in 2010 may not be as great as we first thought, but GDP will nonetheless fall by 1.6%. We expect consumer spending to fall by 3%, but think that unemployment will remain below 14%.