Growth forecast revised upwards but economy still expected to slow

Following the announcement of very strong growth in the Northern Ireland Composite Economic Index and workforce jobs data for 2016 Q4, compounded by reasonably robust early data releases for 2017 Q1, we have revised our forecast for growth in 2017 up to 1.2%. We do, however, anticipate a slight slowdown in 2018 to growth of 1.0% as inflation remains above the 2.0% target and squeezes consumers’ spending power.

Read the 2017 Q2 Quarterly Sectoral Forecasts report here