Ireland's Central Bank has lowered its economic forecast for this year and is predicting that the Republic's economy will grow by just 0.8 per cent.
That's a tenth of a percent less than an April prediction that pegged 2011 growth at an anemic 0.9 percent.
The Central Bank has also warned that gross national product - which excludes repatriated profits of multinational firms - may decline by about 0.3 percent this year.
"However, it predicted stronger growth in 2012, with gross domestic product expected to expand by 2.1 percent and a rise of 1 percent in GNP," the Irish Times reported.
The bank took the view that unemployment in the Republic may have peaked, but this largely reflected "a pick-up in net outward migration."
