CSO to release growth figures

IRELAND’S economic growth may have slowed in the second quarter as tax increases and rising unemployment weighed on consumer spending.

Gross domestic product may have expanded 0.3% from the first quarter, when it grew 1.3%, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of six economists.

From a year earlier, the economy may have grown 0.4%. The Central Statistics Office will release the data at 11am today in Dublin. The Government is betting that exports of goods such as foods and drugs will help to offset falling consumer spending.