General Industry News

Coronavirus: ESRI warns of deepest recession in Irish history

The Irish Times – 28.05.2020

The Green Party is likely to agree that the next government should reduce the budget deficit in the second half of its term, following years of heavy borrowing to finance public investment in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis and what the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) warns will be the biggest economic slump in Irish history. According to the ESRI, the economy is on track to shrink by more than 12 per cent this year. In a worst-case scenario, where a second wave of the virus requires another lockdown in the final quarter of the year, the economy could contract by as much as 17 per cent, the ESRI says.

Unprecedented collapse in overseas travel to and from Ireland

Business Post – 28.05.2020

New figures showed an “unprecedented collapse” in overseas travel to and from Ireland for the month of April as the effects of the Covid-19 crisis deepened. The data, from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) found there were 16,100 arrivals in April 2020 and 17,800 departures. This compares with monthly travel of more than 1.7 million in each direction, in April 2019, an annual fall of 99 per cent. For the year to date 3,101,300 people arrived in Ireland from overseas and 3,063,100 persons departed. These figures are decreases of 44.4 per cent and 45.1 per cent respectively compared with the same period in 2019.