The latest Dublin Economic Monitor shows that the leading indicators for the city's economy hint that a recession is an increasingly realistic possibility.
The monitor is published by the four Dublin Local Authorities.
Dublin retail spending fell in the first quarter of this year as an obvious "softness" in consumer demand affected specific categories within the sector, data from MasterCard shows.
Cost of living pressures, linked to soaring energy prices due to the war in Ukraine, are likely to have been influential as spending in Dublin fell by 8.1% on a quarterly basis.
The single most significant reduction in expenditure was in department and clothing stores where spending dropped by 28.3%.
Dublin's S&P Global Purchasing Managers' Index shows that business activity in the city's private sector increased at a sharp and accelerated rate in the first three months of 2022 as the fading of the Omicron wave of Covid-19 boosted growth.
Construction was to the fore with an index reading of 62.1, and drove an overall PMI reading of 60.1. Any reading above 50 signifies growth.
But S&P Global warned of the potential of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and intensifying cost pressures, to limit growth in the second quarter of 2022.
Today's monitor noted that activity in the residential property market continued to recover, with rising housing completions and transactions levels.
In March, prices continued to rise in Dublin, increasing by 0.4% on a monthly basis and by 12.4% on an annual to reach a new peak index reading which was the highest since 2008.
But residential rents in Dublin declined on a quarterly basis for only the second time in six years in the fourth quarter of 2021. The average rent for a property in Dublin fell by 3.3% to stand at €1,804 in the quarter.
Meanwhile, the Dublin hotel market roared back to life in the first four months of 2022. Occupancy rates in the sector, which had languished below 10% during the worst of the Covid pandemic, rose in each month to stand at 82.9% in April - the highest occupancy rate since summer 2019.
Average Daily Rates also rose dramatically to reach the highest level (€155) since the series began in 2014, the Dublin Economic Monitor reveals.
Andrew Webb, the chief economist with Grant Thornton, said that while forecasters are not yet calling a recession, there is a growing number of clues in the data to suggest a recession is increasingly likely.
"Cost of living pressures are pushing consumer and business sentiment into more downbeat territory, reflected in MasterCard SpendingPulse data and a softening of new job listings. All eyes are now on consumers to see if downbeat sentiment turns to reduced spending, prompting an economic downturn," Mr Webb added.
