Victor Duggan Economist HOW YOU SEE Ireland’s economic prospects may depend on whether your glass is half full or half empty in the post-Paddy’s day haze.
Workers are starting to feel it in their back pockets as the annual rate of growth in hourly earnings reached 3.8% in the final three months of 2018, the fastest since early 2009. The long-term trend in falling unemployment rates ended in August 2018, since when it has hovered around 5.6%. But, one only needs to glance across the Irish Sea to see why people may fear the worst. Rising fears of a devastating hard Brexit towards the end of this month could help explain falls in both consumer confidence and house prices, with the latter reinforcing the former as homeowners feel less flush.
That the current U.K. government stumbles into a nasty accident can’t be ruled out, but good sense must surely prevail at the last minute. The Eurozone economy is back at crawl speed, with a few of its larger economies in, or close to, recession.
If we had a reliable government comprised of competent individuals I would say this was on purpose and part of a plan. But......
Depends on whether Goldilocks is set in and around Dublin or not.
The period needs to be spent using the growth to rebalance the social deficits such as housing, education and trying to reform the HSE. The time to fix the health service is in the good times not the bad.