Stabilisation should be the story for 2013

In the context of the travails that the Irish economy has endured since 2008, 2012 was not the worst year of the “depression”, and in fact turned out somewhat less bad than might have been expected.

This is in the sense that the pace of deterioration in variables such as the construction sector, consumer spending, business investment spending, and public finances slowed, and there were suggestions of stabilisation. Before we can start imagining recovery, though, stabilisation has first to be seen. Hopefully that will be the story for 2013.

On a positive note, the export side of the economy continued to grow. For the agri-food sector, it was also a decent year, with leading players such as Glanbia and the Kerry Group all delivering a good performance.