A few short years ago, the Irish Republic was the leading economy in Europe and was dubbed the “Celtic Tiger“. All that changed with the global credit crisis however, propelling Ireland into a long and painful recession culminating with a debt load ranking amongst the highest debtor nations in Europe at 12 percent of GDP.
For the third quarter ending in September, Ireland managed to finally break the cycle of declines by posting a modest growth of 0.3 percent. Unfortunately, most analysts are warning that continued growth is not a sure thing as noted by Eoin Fahy, chief economist at KBC Asset Management, said:
“The process is still very volatile. Clearly we shouldn’t overstate. It is a good news that GDP is growing rather than falling, but we still have to remain cautious because of the volatility.”
