Ireland: one of the fastest growing Economies in Europe!

The Irish business miracle is still going strong with even better outlook for the future. Expectations for the Irish economy are generally positive, and according to Healy Consultants' Economic team. The country is expected to remain in the top 3 fastest growing economies in the Eurozone, even up to 2024.

The numbers clearly show that Ireland is on top of the Eurozone list when calculating gross domestic product growth. The projected Irish GDP growth for 2018 is about 3.5% while the average for  the European Union is a mere 2.2%. Global business optimism has almost doubled in the past three quarters which further raises the performance expectations. Some believe that the US is the main engine behind the increased business optimism, while other believe that many entrepreneurs plan to move their business from UK to Ireland following the impending BREXIT. Ireland will become the only English speaking country left in the Eurozone, which is therefore expected to attract investments from traditional English speaking destinations, such as US, Hong Kong, Canada and India.

This positive trend is further cemented by a statement from PwC Ireland managing partner, Feargal O'Rourke. He said in January 2018 that "This strong economic growth in Ireland is based on continued investment and household consumption growth as well as continuing FDI flows,"

In the same month, the Irish business activity is increasingly positive. The Irish business sentiment index increased from 116.6 in 2017 to as high as 120.8 in mid-January. The reasons for the increased business sentiment index is largely due to new hiring and significantly smaller number of firms reporting deteriorating business conditions over the Q4 of 2017.

However, the above-mentioned opportunities represent also challenges which lurk in the shadows and bring uncertainty to the table. While the planned US tax overhaul is generally considered as a good thing, stirring foreign investments and optimism, the impact of the results of the same may vary significantly. Furthermore, Ireland is more and more dependent on technologies and electronics, consequently, any technological disruptions may cause millions of euros in losses. A great example of this was the recent hacker attack with the WannaCry cryptoworm ransomware that affected large organizations such as Renault, Nissan, O2 and Petrobras.

In conclusion, most businesses consider BREXIT a good deal for Ireland, with a small 17% of the companies that do believe BREXIT will affect negatively their business.