The majority of the Irish public believe the country is heading for a recession, a new poll indicates.
Almost four out of five people think the economy is heading for a slump, the Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll found. A global recession appears to be on the cards with the European Central Bank set to increase interest rates for the first in a decade to curb inflation.
It comes as Ireland's inflation rate is estimated to have hit 9.6%. The Russian war in Ukraine and its disruption to global supply chains is a major factor in skyrocketing inflation.
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The huge rates of inflation have resulted in the cost of living crisis as real purchasing power slumps. The latest Dublin Economic Monitor said a recession was "an increasingly realistic possibility" due to Mastercard data which showed that spending in the capital fell by 8.3% from Q4 2021 to Q1 2022. Finance guru Eddie Hobbs has speculated that Ireland is "likely" to be in a recession by Autumn.
And Economist David McWilliams told his podcast that the global credit crunch has already resulted in Dublin's tech sector "laying people off" for the first time. He said: "I have heard from people I know in Silicon Valley that the credit crunch is there.
"That you cannot get capital. Silicon Valley has gone from getting any old gobsh**e with any old idea could get tens of millions of quid. There is no capital there now.
He added: "It has changed over night. The big issue in Dublin is that loads and loads of the tech companies are laying people off for the first time in ten years. There has been a total collapse in the optimism of tech. The optimism, the effervescence, the idea that the world is changing."
Dublin Live's explainer on when the recession is likely to hit can be read here.
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