During the past three months, evidence of the general economic slowdown has accumulated in Northern Ireland (NI). Industrial output weakened further, particularly in the depressed textiles sector. Consumer confidence weakened, house prices fell and the level of new housing starts declined. Business confidence remained fragile across all sectors. Without doubt some of relative gloom was prompted by developments in the Middle East, to say nothing of the twists and turns in the NI peace process.
These rather downbeat developments were accompanied by an equally downbeat UK Budget. The best that can be said about Chancellor Gordon Brown’s latest package is that it reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to substantial extra financial resources for health and education during the next five years. As far as NI is concerned, this means progressively larger increases in spending on health and education services between now and 2007-08.
