Consumer spending in Ireland is forecast to top €111 billion this year, as the consumer economy emerges from a so-called 'lost decade'.
The latest Consumer Market Monitor from the Marketing Institute and the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School says consumer demand has remained resilient in recent years despite the threat of Brexit.
It forecasts a continuation of this trend in 2020, due to further increases in employment and rising wages.
The monitor expects 70,000 more people to join the workforce in this year and the next, with wages predicted to grow by 4% each year.
That will push disposable income in the country to €120 billion this year, compared to €117 billion in 2019.
Household spending will rise by a similar amount - with a monitor forecast of €111 billion this year compared to €108 billion in 2019.
"We're seeing a widespread improvement which has taken time and there are parts of the economy where it's slow to reach," Mary Lambkin, Professor of Marketing at the Smurfit Business School said.
"500,000 jobs have been added to the economy in recent years. They're all earning money, paying taxes and doing better. That has a multiplier effect on the wider economy and that helps create more jobs," she explained.
The monitor also reports on improving household wealth, largely due to rising property prices, while consumers are also increasingly taking on debt to support their spending.
However it says borrowing is not a major contributor to recent spending, unlike during the Celtic Tiger years, with the ratio of debt to disposable income continuing to fall.
"The borrowing is very much sustainable. The fact that there are controls around borrowing to buy a home is contributing to that," Professor Lambkin said.
"In a normal economy, you should have borrowing. The fact that we've got back to a normal environment with modest borrowing is good."
She contrasted this to the situation before the crash where householders were, on average, borrowing double the amount that they earned every year.
"That ratio is now at about 115 (% of earnings) so it means your borrowing is only just more than your annual net income."
