Reuters: Market News: Irish consumer sentiment hits five-month high

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Irish consumer sentiment hits five-month high Apr 11th 2012, 11:02 DUBLIN, April 11 | Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:02am EDT DUBLIN, April 11 (Reuters) - Irish consumer sentiment rose to a five-month high in March on the back of signs of improving job markets and a sense that the euro zone's debt crisis was unlikely to spiral out of control as earlier feared, a survey showed on Wednesday. While the euro zone's debt problems have shown signs of returning in recent days, a more benign start to the year helped push the KBC Bank Ireland/ESRI Consumer Sentiment Index higher in each month of the first quarter to stand at 60.6 in March. That was up from 57.0 in February and 49.2 in December when the reading nosedived by 11 points, the largest monthly drop in over a decade, on fears of a European-wide meltdown. "While consumers remain very cautious and are particularly concerned about their personal finances, the extreme fears that prevailed late 2011 seem to be slowly easing," said Austin Hughes, economist at KBC Bank Ireland. "Irish consumers are not quite as gloomy as they were at the peak of the crisis but they continue to see the major obstacles that preclude a return to solid growth in economic activity and incomes." Although Ireland's export-led economy returned to growth on a gross domestic product (GDP) basis last year, the domestic economy remains under pressure and March's survey reflected a view of the Irish economy as a whole rather than any improvement in personal finances. With a weakening of two of the three sub index relating to household finances, Hughes said the downbeat attitude among consumers looked set to continue for the time being. "Until a notably clearer upswing in activity and employment takes hold and promises the prospect of stronger household incomes, Irish consumer sentiment and spending are likely to remain subdued," he said. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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