The Irish economy will grow by 3.7 per cent in gross domestic product (GDP) terms in 2004, according to the European Commission's quarterly economic forecast, which was published today.
The Commission is even more optimistic about the prospects for next year saying that growth will rise to 4.6 per cent next year.
Figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) last week showed that growth in the Republic was stronger in the final quarter of 2003 than in the previous nine months of the year.
According to the CSO (GDP) climb by 2.7 per cent in the last three months of the year, while gross national product (GNP) rose by 5.5 per cent.
The late surge helped to lift average annual growth in GNP to 3.3 per cent, although GDP for the whole year was much more sluggish at 1.4 per cent.
In its spring economic forecast published today, the Commission says consumer demand will benefit from modest gains in disposable income and lower inflation
It also expresses its confidence that exports will rally strongly in line with a global upturn and describes the Irish labour marker as being "remarkably resilient" last year
The Commission said it expected the Government deficit for this year to be lower than the 1.1 per cent of GDP forecast.
