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Economy will grow faster than rest of Europe, says expert

The economy will grow faster than any other western European economy between now and 2020, an economist from the London-based Centre for European Reform (CER) predicted yesterday.

Simon Tilford, CER's chief economist, said making long-term forecasts was "a nonsense" but that, if he was having a bet, he would back the Republic to remain the fastest-growing western European country over the next 12 years "notwithstanding the next two years, which I think might be horrid".

Mr Tilford, who was addressing the American Chamber of Commerce's spring lunch, said the CER's most recent scorecard of EU member states ranked the Republic in sixth place, up two places from the year before.

Providence offered new oil prospect

Providence Resources has been offered a new oil exploration area in the UK in conjunction with its partner Northern Petroleum. The new interest is located in West Sussex, close to Providence's existing 99.125 per cent holding in the Singleton Oil Field. Providence will operate the new field.

Airtricity purchaser makes 1.5bn profit

The company that recently bought wind energy group Airtricity made profits of more than €1.5 billion in its last financial year. Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) paid €1.1 billion for Irish group Airtricity's European business at the beginning of the year. Yesterday, SSE said that its pretax profits grew 14 per cent to £1.229 billion sterling (€1.5 billion) in the 12 months ended March 31st.

Aer Lingus passes 200,000 mark in NI

Aer Lingus this week passes the 200,000 passenger landmark since it started operations out of Belfast last December. The airline said yesterday that by next week it would also have taken 350,000 bookings for flights on its routes through Belfast International Airport. The airline invested £100 million in setting up its first UK regional hub in Northern Ireland with a plan of carrying 500,000 passengers in the first year.- (PA)

 Bear Stearns CEO apologises

Jimmy Cayne apologised for the first time to Bear Stearns shareholders and employees yesterday as the investment bank he helped build into a powerhouse formally disappeared into Wall Street history as the biggest victim of the credit crisis.

Mr Cayne's comments came as shareholders approved the sale of the bank to JPMorgan Chase for $10 a share, or $2.2 billion.

Bear traded above $150 a share as recently as a year ago.- (Financial Times service)

 Need to continue with national plan stressed

The Government must continue with its National Development Plan (NDP) regardless of the worsening economic situation, Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association chairman JJ Killian urged at the association's annual lunch yesterday.

Referring to reports that the Government may reconsider its capital spending programme, Mr Killian said, "It is absolutely wrong to interfere with long-term strategy for the sake of short-term considerations. If we have to borrow to keep the NDP going, then that's what we should do." While acknowledging that the economy was passing through a difficult time, he was confident that in the next 12-18 months things would bounce back.

US growth revised upwards to 0.9%

A narrower trade deficit helped the US economy grow at a 0.9 per cent annual rate in the first three months of this year, according to preliminary government data yesterday. First-quarter gross domestic product was revised higher from an originally reported 0.6 per cent annualised rate - adding weight to the argument that the economy did not fall into recession at the turn of the year. - (Financial Times service)