Poor consumer confidence hits recovery

A CONTINUING lack of consumer confidence has emerged as the biggest obstacle to economic recovery here in the minds of Ireland’s business leaders, according to a new survey.

According to Deloitte’s pre-budget chief executive forum – which questioned the concerns of 129 Irish business leaders – weak consumer confidence is the “greatest single challenge facing Irish businesses” at the moment, outstripping other popular bugbears such as poor credit flows, bad debt levels and exchange rate volatility.

“It is no surprise that chief executives have highlighted consumer confidence and the lack of a detailed Government step plan to drive recovery in the economy as the two most significant challenges to the recovery of their businesses. They are essentially two sides of the same coin,” commented Paul Reck, Deloitte’s head of tax policy.