Irelands Recession

All around the world people feel the major affects of a world economic downfall and of course Ireland is no different. Ireland like man others have took hits in their employments rate and housing market, which seems to have a ripple affect on everything else that is taking a decline with it. With the unemployment rate still at a steady decline going up around "1% every three months since December" (RTE.ir). The unemployment rate in Ireland is now around 14%, which is a substantial difference from its 6% in earl 2008. Ireland has been hit hard by the economic downfall and with a labor force of over twenty two million, it has actually started going down with people being forced to find other means of living in other places moving away from the island nation.

Also with the work force disappearing and taking a major hit, it is only natural that housing would then next to take a downfall. Housing prices are at a all time low for the past 20 years in Ireland, at over 19% going into 2010. It has been on this receding line since late 2006 even before the the world economic turn. Only in the recent months has it been the most devastating to the market with a % change of .03 every month.

These two markets lead to other market drops as well, much like we have seen in the United States and all around the world. With this study of Ireland; thus far, has only mirrored the same experiences and problems that we see in our own country. So we could not only sympathize, but understand the issues that they are having.

Ireland's Economy

For the first post I will talk about the basics of Ireland's economy. Ireland's economy is mainly driven by exports at this time, but it was not only until recently it has become this way. It was mainly an agricultural country; but do to industrialization, the country has followed in the paths of other European nations in more way than one. The country itself shares currency by using the Euro (valued more than the U.S. dollar), but like the rest of the world it was hard hit in recent years by a resession. At the point of time Ireland is working to bounce back from a hard lost and now "implemented a series of national economic programs designed to curb price and wage inflation, invest in infrastructure, increase labor force skills, and promote foreign investment" (CIA.gov). Due to this though, they must work with the other European countries to make it work and compromise.

Ireland itself is a self sustainable island nation and in fact with today's world economy, the people of the nation are not as bad off as many around the world. 7% of the nation is under the poverty line, which is better than most. The household income average is around 34,000 a year, but with recent years the countries growth has actually dropped by 3%. Its countries inflation has gone up as well by .8% a year in recent coming year. With all this though, the country has proven that it has the ability to bounce back and evolve to an improving economic power.