Unemployment to edge lower in 2011

THE unemployment rate is expected to edge lower next year peaking at 14% by the end of 2010, according to Ulster Bank revised its economic forecasts upwards.

The bank’s latest economic update also warned that it is “extremely important” for the Irish authorities to provide clarity as soon as possible on plans for Anglo and the total cost to the Exchequer.

Ulster Bank chief economist Simon Barry also said depending on how events unfold in the coming months, as well as the treatment of further injections into Anglo, such outlays could result in a “spectacularly ugly headline budget deficit number for this year”, maybe of the order of mid-20% of GDP and perhaps even higher in a truly extreme scenario.