Business Review of the Year

2011 began with the coutry in the grip of a big freeze. It ends with far more clement weather, but the business environment remains frosty.

JANUARY

THE year began with the nation still shivering from the dramatic snowfalls in December — a climatic not helped by data from the Central Statistics Office showing an extra 5,200 people joined the Live Register the previous month, totalling 444,000. The estimated unemployment rate averaged 13.3%, the worst since 1994.