| The ESRI believes the Irish economy will contract by 0.25% next year
but Ireland should exit recession in the middle of the summer.
This year the ESRI says the economy shrank by 7.25%.
In its final quarterly economic commentary of the year, the ESRI
says it is hard to overstate what a difficult year 2009 has been for
the economy, with a drop in GNP of 10% and more tellingly 170,000 less
people at work.
However, it says there will be low levels of growth for the remainder of the year.
That growth will not be enough to stave off further unemployment
with another 76,000 jobs predicted to be lost - but that is less than
half the rate of job loss seen this year.
Assessing the recent Budget, the ESRI says it will be positive for
the economy and that the burden of the combined changes of the past
three budgets has fallen most heavily on high earners.
It says contrary to popular perceptions this was not the most
contractionary Budget of modern times, as the Budgets of 1976, 1988 and
1989 all took more money out of the economy.
Source: www.rte.ie
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