Central Bank says Irish economy could enter ‘technical recession’

The Irish economy is entering a period of “considerable” economic slowdown and could tip into a “technical recession” over the coming months, the Central Bank of Ireland has said.

The financial regulator expects a rapid drop off in growth from 6.4 per cent this year to 2.3 per cent next year, when the effects of foreign multinationals are stripped out, but stressed that it was not forecasting the economy to fall into a prolonged recession.