ESRI predicts further strong economic growth for Ireland

Ireland Online:

The Government's economic think-tank has predicted that Ireland's economy will continue to perform strongly in the coming year.

In its latest quarterly commentary, the Economic and Social Research Institute said it expected Gross Domestic Product to increase by 5.7% in 2005 and by a further 5% in 2006.

It said growing employment levels suggested that the economy was performing extremely well.

Elsewhere, the ESRI predicted that employment would increase at a slower rate in 2006 due to a decline in house construction, while the unemployment rate was likely to remain static at 4.2%.

It also predicted that inflation for 2005 would be 2.3%, rising to 2.5% in 2006.

Ireland’s strong economic growth to continue