Ireland emerges from recession - Telegraph On balance it's good news, but growth this year might be a little weaker than previously thought. We will be downgrading our 2013 GDP forecast, but we still expect the economy to expand by around 2pc in 2014. Ireland's government forecast in April that the economy would grow by 1.3pc for 2013 as a whole. Economists polled by Reuters last month predicted growth of just 0.5pc. Ireland's emergence from a short recession was slower than anticipated, economists polled by Reuters having forecast gross domestic product would bounce back from three quarters of decline with growth of 0.8pc in the second quarter. After Ireland's trade-dependent economy was hit hard by the downturn in Europe, exports rose by 4.3pc compared with the first quarter, while consumer spending rose 0.7pc after both suffered big falls in the previous three months. With Ireland's jobless rate at a three-year low, economies in major trading partners picking up and indicators pointing towards a more positive third quarter for the domestic economy, most economists expect growth to accelerate in the second half.