Ireland's GDP will grow by 0.5% this year, according to Bank of Ireland's latest quarterly economic outlook.
Bank of Ireland said that the Irish economy grew by 5.1% in nominal terms in the first quarter of 2011 and by 1.3% in volume terms.
'The new figures point to real GDP having bottomed in the final quarter of 2009, but the quarterly pattern since then has been volatile, with any advance followed by a contraction,' said Dan McLaughlin, group chief economist, Bank of Ireland.
'That may remain the case this year, although we still expect a modest 0.5% rise in GDP for 2011 as a whole.'
Dr McLaughlin said the bank was revising downwards its personal consumption projection.
'We now expect a 2.5% fall in the volume of personal consumption against our previous 2%,' he said.
While a fall in domestic spending will be offset by 'another strong contribution from the external sector', the bank is revising downwards its export and import growth figures, 'with the former reflecting the deceleration in global growth evident in the first half of the year'.
The bank said that unemployment may rise, but at a slower pace than last year, and that the Exchequer deficit appeared to be broadly on track.
