Double-dip fear as services decline

DECEMBER saw the first decline in activity in the services sector for a year, prompting one international economist to suggest that the Irish economy is officially in double-dip recession mode.

New York University professor, Nouriel Roubini — who claims to have predicted the global recession of 2008 and the collapse of the housing market in the US — expressed his opinion on the back of the results of the latest monthly services PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) from NCB Stockbrokers, published yesterday.

Those results showed a slight decline in business activity during December (although the index reading in this regard was down from a positive 52.7 points in November to a negative 48.4 points in December), a second consecutive monthly dip in business confidence amongst services companies, the eighth successive month of job shedding and a decline in new business levels. All of this added up to the first decrease in services activity in Ireland since December 2010.