DUBLIN, April 18 (Reuters) - Irish inflation is forecast
to slow to 4.9% this year and the economy to grow by 2.1% due to
its "remarkable resilience", Ireland's finance ministry said on
Tuesday.
Inflation jumped to a near 40-year high of 9.2% last October
but has since slowed to 7.7% and the finance ministry forecast
that the headline rate would fall further to 2.5% next year.
But core inflation, which strips out unprocessed food and
energy, is expected to average 4.4% this year and 3.2% in 2024.
Irish modified domestic demand, the government's preferred
measure of economic activity as it strips out many of the ways
multinational activity can inflate growth, is set to expand by
2.5% next year, after the 2.1% forecast for 2023.
Modified domestic demand grew by 8.2% last year, making
Ireland the fastest growing economy in the euro zone, but
momentum fell sharply in the second half.
Ireland was also one of the few euro zone countries to
record a budget surplus last year and the finance ministry
expects that to grow to 3.5% of gross national income this year,
5.4% next year and as high as 6.3% in 2026.
Record corporate tax receipts, mostly paid by Ireland's
large hub of big multi-national companies, are mainly behind the
huge projected surpluses.
The finance ministry said the public finances would still be
in deficit this year without the "windfall" corporate receipts
and that next year's surplus would be 4.4 billion euros ($4.8
billion) and not the projected 16.2 billion euros without them.
($1 = 0.9133 euros)
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Alexander Smith)
Messaging: padraic.halpin.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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