DUBLIN: Ireland’s economy slid into recession late last year and continued to contract sharply in early 2013, new and revised figures showed yesterday, just months before it is due to exit its EU/IMF bailout programme.
Gross domestic product shrank 0.6 percent in the first quarter of this year from the previous three months, confounding analysts’ expectations of 0.3 percent growth — a shock reading that shows the eurozone member is recovering from financial crisis much more slowly than previously thought.
Revised data also showed a quarterly contraction of 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, meaning Ireland’s economy has shrunk for three successive quarters and is in its first recession since 2009.
The government is targeting growth of 1.3 percent this year and while Finance Minister Michael Noonan said he would not tie himself to any particular number when asked if that forecast would have to be revised, he said that other parts of the public finances were holding up better. Reuters
