Concerned consumers are saving their cash, not spending
“I’ve gotten rid of my credit cards and paid down my overdraft,” said O’Neill, 36, whose construction worker husband is in London after the property bubble collapsed. “Now we’re in recession. I don’t buy what I don’t have to.”
Irish retail sales are falling at more than twice the pace of the average in the euro region after the Government increased taxes and reduced salaries for state workers by 14% to help cope with Europe’s worst banking crisis. Consumer spending plunged 1.9% in the first quarter from the fourth quarter, the steepest drop in two years, according to figures published last month by the statistics office.
