Conor Lenihan
Ceist:198 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Minister for Finance if he intends to revise his budget day forecast in relation to employment levels in view of the most recent information from the Central Statistics Office. [13368/03]
Written Answers. - Employment Levels.
On budget day my Department forecast employment growth of 0.6% in 2003. The quarterly national household survey for the fourth quarter of 2002 was published by the CSO on 20 February this year and showed employment growth of 1.4% as apposed to the 1.0% forecast at budget time. The first quarter of 2003 data is due out by the end of May.
As is customary my Department will publish a revised forecast in the Economic Review and Outlook in the summer, in which these new figures will be taken into account.