Leadership

Jim Power – slow recovery ahead

11.06.2009
Ireland is in for a slow recovery, despite positive indications on the economic horizon, the well-known Friends First economist Jim Power has said.

Speaking as he launched a new financial services company established by former All Star and current Limerick hurler Ollie Moran in Limerick, Power said that the best Ireland can hope for is a slow recovery.

"There are most definitely positive signs beginning to emerge for the first time in 18 months, but it would be naive to believe that this is the beginning of a strong recovery. It is not. What we are going to see at best from here is a slow, gradual global recovery,” he said.

"What we can say is that the external background for the Irish economy will gradually get better over the next 12 to 18 months. Before you can start talking about recovery, though, you have to see stabilisation taking place, and it is. But it is important to state that this is happening at a slow rate.

"It is going to take a while for us to work through the problems that have been created by irresponsible banks here in Ireland and around the globe."

Power also predicted another 15pc drop in house prices before the property market hits the bottom.

Power's comments were echoed by the Limerick hurler Ollie Moran, whose new financial service is based at Upper Mallow Street, Limerick. "There is noticeable confidence creeping back into the market. It is happening slowly, but the reality is that it is happening.

"A lot of people would, of course, say that opening a new business during a downturn as severe as this is questionable," he added. "But there is opportunity out there, and where we see it is by providing a service that can lessen the financial burden on people in these difficult times."

Pictured: Ollie Moran with Jim Power, economist, at the launch of Moran's new company, Ollie Moran Financial Services, in the Marriott Hotel, Limerick