Economy to grow strongly this year, Department of Finance officials forecast

Ireland’s economy will grow again strongly this year and any new government can look forward to tapping solid growth in tax revenues — as long as the worst fears over a Brexit and the global economy do not come true, according to new Department of Finance key projections published last night.

The new forecasts are prepared for the Brussels mandarins under Ireland’s ‘Stability Programme’ and incorporate the department’s Spring projections that update the country’s economic and fiscal sums for the first time since last October’s budget.

However, the department’s new projections for 4.9% GDP growth this year — up by around half a percentage point since October’s budget — and expansion of 3.9% in 2017 appear to err on the conservative side because of the range of exceptional external risks facing the economy.