Economy set to grow by more than the Government forecast

Ireland’s economy is set to grow this year by more than the Government has forecast with the country expected to build on the momentum seen as it exited an EU/IMF bailout, a Reuters survey of economists showed yesterday.

Ireland became the first eurozone country to complete an international bailout at the end of last year and the economy is showing signs of picking up steam after barely eking out growth in 2012.

The economy should expand 2.2% this year, according to the median forecast of 10 economists polled by Reuters, a better outturn that the 2% seen in the last poll in November and the 1.7% predicted a month before that.