Quote Originally Posted by smitchy2 View Post
I hope you are being sarcastic here.
A drop of 10% in GDP in such a short space of time is catastrophic for any country’s economy and this is set to continue well into 2010/11.
There is no evidence of the last couple of months from any reports to back up your claim that “92% of the glass” will continue to fill- ie Q4 ’08 figures.
Consumption and investment are tanking.
Apart from the growth figures for that 92% (for the moment, I assume that they will recede). The drop in 5% (which are the actual figures) could be catastophic if it was across all sectors (it isn't, yet). Construction is artifically weighing down the overall figures (just as they artifically inflated them).

The indicators for the future, however, appear bleak.
Very bleak.
2009 could be one of the biggest disasters to befall the Irish Economy since the economic war in the 1930s.

One can expect unemployment to reach 12-14% (ie over 400,000 siging on the dole) in the next year to 18 months. Residential construction will wither and die. FDI may recede. Existing multi-nationals may cut and run. 10 to 15,000 public sector jobs may not be filled. Employment will probably fall below 2m by March. Ouch (unless you are a debt collector, liquidator, or pulkic sector employee)