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THE IRISH ECONOMY is set to grow by 4.3% this year, according to predictions by the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC)
This is a revision of the 6.1% predicted growth made at the end of last year. The revised forecasts come largely as a result of the economic impact from rising costs and supply chain challenges across the global economy, accelerated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
IBEC expects that consumer price inflation this year will run at around 6.1% for the full year – it had previously forecast this figure to be 3.3%.
The lobby group’s annual Economic Outlook report found that Irish households come into this period with record savings. At the end of February 2022, Irish household deposits had risen by €30 billion compared to the same month in 2020, to over €142 billion, or €28,000 per person.
IBEC Chief Economist and Head of National Policy Gerard Brady said that despite the revised figures, “our underlying business model remains strong and can deliver growth”.
“However, the global environment will drag on growth this year and next, with rising energy costs, record commodity and transport costs and global supply chain challenges resulting in a slowing of business investment and lower than previously expected consumer spending,” he added.
“Even if inflation growth slows, the level of energy, transport and commodity prices will now remain much higher for longer. The net impact of this in economic terms is both a relative price shock for consumers – reducing spending elsewhere – and the postponement and re-evaluation of investments in businesses and construction.”
Retail sales in January and February were up 12%, in volume terms on the same period in 2019 – showing the strength of the retail recovery from last year’s lockdown.
However, Brady added: “We are already seeing the challenges of commodity inflation starting to hurt our capacity to deliver much needed housing and infrastructure. It is vital that government works with industry to ensure that contracts are adaptable to the challenges of inflation and that it remains viable for much needed infrastructure projects to continue to address the multiple quality of life and sustainability issues the country faces.
The report also said that overall consumption remains unchanged but other sectors of the economy – particularly those reliant on discretionary spending – could lose out.
“This coming year will be a tight balancing act for policymakers globally. Measures to support households and businesses must be tightly targeted if we are to avoid adding fuel to the inflationary fire. At the same time, premature or misjudged monetary policy reactions could trigger an unnecessary economic contraction.”
they did this in the uk over 20 yrs ago – the only difference it made was that response time were slower and ‘smaller’ crimes went un-investigated due to a lack of manpower at local level ,instead of getting an officer at your door to deal with an incident ,you got a ‘crime number ‘ from someone in a call centre , it was up to YOU to ‘check up’ on the ‘progress’ of the case, al that happened was that people stopped reporting ‘minor’ incidents like shed break-ins, car thefts ,street robberies etc , and those in charge of the police force were able to say that ”reported crime numbers were down ” and so deemed the move to regional offices a success . in reality -crime numbers were rising but no one was reporting them as they new it would be a waste of time doing so . what is needed is MORE gardai at local level -not fewer !
@Eric Davies: I thought the whole idea of the restructuring was to increase the number of garda and Sargents as there would be less admin and the reduction in high level salaries would be reinvested in local level gardai, hence the number of local gardai would increase, would it not?
@Eric Davies: and that’s when the Tony martin incident took place!!
@Eric Davies: yes I got a crime number in Cardiff Wales and that was that
@Vocal Outrage: It didn’t work when the divisions in England/Wales were reduced, there are 20,000 fewer officers now,the divisions in England/Wales rank 27 out of 31 in an International survey of the number of police officers per 100,000 population
@Honeybee: you are right. And guess what, we are ranked even lower.
@Vocal Outrage: thats how it was sold to people -but its not how it turned out – stations that were 20 or so miles apart were ‘amalgamated’ into one – some where even in different counties (lancashire and cheshire for instance) leaving one of the communities without proper cover – when shift changes took place officers had to be at the station for their ‘sign on’ briefing – by the time that was done it meant no officers being available in the non stationed town for over an hour sometimes 2 – also any incidents reported in the town where there was a station would get priority with regard to manpower as they were closer to the station … i know former police officers who were serving at the time and it messed up the entire system .
Also a list of where Krispy Kreme donut outlets will be opening up soon.
@WoodlandBard: hilarious
@Mark Spain: they’re shite donuts.
our fine ruc
@Kieran Cronin: yawn
@Kieran Cronin: Your stone must have needed cleaning that’s fine. Now crawl back under that stone. Stay their clown.
@Kieran Cronin: Muppet
@Kieran Cronin: I, for one, believe the Chief Constable is doing a fine job.
The Cities of Galway, Cork and Dublin are Regional HQs – Kilkenny is upgraded to include its very own ‘Regional Chief Superintendent’ while both the Cities of Limerick and Waterford are ignored? By most accounts both Limerick and Waterford have a higher inner-city crime rate then the entire County of Kilkenny. Something politically amiss here even though I think Commissioner Drew Harris is a breath of fresh air in the corp and the right person to lead the organisation.
@Conor Nolan:
because there is an eastern region covering from meath to waterford. Kilkenny would be in the middle of that. seems logical to me.
@Tim Pot: it does seem strange that. the regional HQ for the Eastern Region is in Kilkenny, I can understand the geography of that one, but the divisional HQ that covers Kilkenny itself will be in Waterford
@Vocal Outrage:
Its the same for the others, example the western region the regional hq is galway, the superintendant monaghan yet the monaghan division hq in drogheda. Its just about finding the right balance between local and central governance. I see no issue.
@Tim Pot: I guess so, I don’t think the army have their overall HQ is the same location as the HQ for the region it’s in, so perhaps that’s a better practice to avoid undue interference from the regional chief super or something
Wenger out
Anyone else see the ad for the fine transit there boss
Joke simple as
As kildare and meath have the lowest number of guards per population this is not good news. We need kildare meath wicklow and louth to be a region on their own. This will lead to these regions losing more guards to other regions. This is not a good idea.
have your say