'Ireland heading into recession' with tourism and retail hit hard by coronavirus spread
Reported today on Irish Examiner
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'Ireland heading into recession' with tourism and retail hit hard by coronavirus spread
The Irish economy is heading into recession a senior economist has warned, as official measures designed to defeat the Covid-19 outbreak hits the jobs-rich industries of tourism, hospitality, and retail.Economist Jim Power said that the economic hit in the coming months may not meet the technical definition of a recession but that the fallout facing exposed industries will nonetheless be severe.
Many employers will be forced to let staff go on a voluntary and involuntary basis to keep staff safe, Mr Power said, and that will lead "close enough to a recession as most people would understand it". Dermot O'Leary, chief economist at Goodbody, said that the tourism industries across Europe will be hit hard."Along with Spain, Portugal, and France, Ireland will experience an outsized economic impact as a result of the collapse in travel due to the virus," he said."President Trump's decision to place an all-out travel ban from Europe marks an extraordinary escalation in the containment efforts to fight the spread of the coronavirus," Mr O'Leary said, saying that tourism accounts for 10% of all Irish jobs.Business groups most vulnerable to the fallout from the virus scrambled to reassure customers but a leading tourism chief said it was time for the Government to provide "a rescue package" for the industry's 260,000 jobs.
Eoghan O'Mara Walsh, head of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, which brings together both private firms and the Government tourism agencies, in the north and south, said there are thousands of tourism jobs at risk.The closure of tourism attractions and the restriction of gatherings will hit tourism and hospitality industries "very hard", he said."We are makin
