Sleeping Celtic Tiger Sharpening Its Claws

A report from the Economic and Social Research Institute has said the Irish economy will bounce back to outperform its European neighbours from now to 2025.

As a result the ERSI has projected the income per head of population in Ireland to come close to 120% of the EU15 average in the years 2020- 2025.

The institute's expectation is based on a pick-up in global economic activity and a consequent increase in the demand for Irish exports.

The level of growth has been estimated at almost 4% per year by the institute for the stuttering next few years, however the increase is expected to exceed 5% from 2010 onwards.

Explaining the reasons for the prediction, the The ESRI said the economy had entered a new phase of development. Market services - particularly business and financial services - are gradually replacing manufacturing as the engine of Irish economic growth.

Already, services exports account for 43% of total exports. By 2025, the ESRI projects that market services will account for 60% of net output in the Irish economy and in excess of 70% of all Irish exports.

Business and financial services, which are the fastest-growing components of market services in the Republic, are projected to employ more than 750,000 people, or some 30 per cent of the workforce, by 2025.

The news comes as a huge boost for the presently flagging economy facing a myriad of declining world market conditions.

(DW)