Ireland beats the UK to pull out of the recession
IRELAND’s troubled economy recorded 0.3 per cent growth in the third quarter, pulling out of recession ahead of the UK despite a savage contraction over the previous year.
The former Celtic tiger economy beat market expectations of a 0.1 per cent rise for the three months to September. However, analysts were cautious, pointing out that once profits made by multinationals using Ireland as a European base were stripped out, the underlying figure for gross national product was a decline of 1.4 per cent.
GDP was down 7.4 per cent in the third quarter on an annualised basis, while industrial production was down 10 per cent, investment was down 35 per cent and construction was down 34 per cent.
Bill Keating, assistant director general of Ireland’s Central Statistics Office, refused to call an end to the recession at a press conference.