Irish middle class ‘escaped the worst’ of global downturn

The middle class here may have largely escaped the worst of the “bleak” pressures on incomes and rising debt facing their counterparts in many parts of the world, according to a major survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Its report, Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class, finds that middle-class income levels in many of the almost 40 countries it surveys have fallen since the mid-1980s and middle-income households are struggling to sustain lifestyles as the costs of housing and consumer prices rise.