Ireland nudges up medium-term economic forecasts

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland increased its medium-term economic forecasts on Tuesday to take account of strong recent data, saying growth would be better than expected in three of the next five years and the unemployment rate would fall below 8 percent by 2017. The finance ministry, which last week upgraded its 2016 growth forecast to 4.2 percent from 3.8 percent, said the economy would grow by 3.5 percent in 2017, up from a forecast of 3.2 percent in April. The economy, which is likely to be the fastest growing in the European Union for the second year in a row in 2015 with forecast growth of 6.2 percent, will grow by at least 3 percent every year until 2020, the finance ministry said. Within two years, the annual unemployment rate will fall below 8 percent for the first time since 2008, it said, with its 2017 forecast falling to 7.7 percent from a forecast of 8.4 percent made in April and from a 2015 average of 9.5 percent. (Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)