Irish Q1 GDP -0.6% q/q. Q4 2012 revised down to -0.2% so Ireland is technically back in recession. With further fiscal tightening of €3.1bn in 2014 and €2.5bn in 2015 it's hard to see where the growth is going to come from. Only a fraction of the capital budget from last year has been spent which compounds our problems. The titanic springs to mind.
The problem is that any real recovery will be export lead and our export markets are also slipping back into recession.
Which is very depressing given that exports rose by 50% from 2000 to 2009 with employment in the sector that generated that growth falling from 310,000 to 250,000.
It's hard to take our export figures seriously when so much of it is just a tax dodge/ transfer price exercise. What level of that growth came from the SME sector;