The economic outlook for 2023 is a mixed one, according to a Waterford economist.
Jim Power says rising interest rates, and the War in Ukraine will continue to dominate the agenda.
However, he believes there are positives for Ireland at the moment.
"The public finances are in reasonable health still," Jim told last night's Hot Desk on WLR, "and tax revenues are still strong.
"The labour market will continue to perform quite strongly so, generally, foreign direct investment, financial services, professional services - those parts of the economy will do well.
"The parts of the economy I would be most concerned about would be those parts of the economy that are most exposed to discretionary spending from the consumer."
As regards inflation, Jim Power says it will take some time for inflation to fall back to levels that central banks will be comfortable with.
"In that context," he explained, "I would expect the Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve, and most importantly from an Irish perspective, the European Central Bank to increase interest rates further."
He is also predicting a tough time for small businesses as we head into 2023.
"I think it's going to be a challenging period and I would certainly say it's an environment where small businesses will have to manage their cost base as carefully as possible.
"Undoubtedly, revenues are going to come under pressure because there was quite a healthy level of consumer spending in the run up to Christmas, as you would normally expect, but I would expect a bit of a hangover in the first three months of this year."
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