The Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform has said that both the Irish and global economic landscape have fundamentally changed due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
Paschal Donohoe said that Irish GDP is set to fall by 10.5% this year with the labour market bearing the brunt of the economic shock of the coronavirus outbreak.
He said the country will go from a state of near full employment to a peak unemployment rate of 22% in the second quarter. Approximately 220,000 jobs will be lost.
Mr Donohoe today published the Government's Stability Programme Update 2020 (SPU), which sets out a macroeconomic and fiscal scenario for 2020 and 2021 and which now incorporates the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. "The Irish economic