Tight controls needed for growth

While Ireland’s economy is showing modest signs of recovery, the growth outlook remains challenging and the Government will need to retain a tight fiscal policy all the way out to 2020, one leading economist has warned.

In his 2013/14 economic outlook published yesterday Jim Power, chief economist at financial services firm, Friends First, said that GDP should grow by 0.3% this year, before jumping by over 2% next year; with the unemployment rate likely to decrease to 13.3% by the close of 2013 and to 12.5% by the end of next year.

His outlook for economic growth is largely in line with recent forecasts from the Department of Finance and the Central Bank.