Ireland Back in Recession
Ireland slid back into recession in the fourth quarter of 2011, data released Thursday showed, as the country seeks to persuade its bailout lenders to give it a break on €31 billion ($40.97 billion) in promissory notes pumped into failed banks.
Ireland’s Central Statistics Office said gross domestic product fell 0.2% from the third quarter, having fallen by 1.1% in the third, a figure that was revised from a 1.9% contraction.
That places Ireland in a recession under the definition of two successive quarters of declining GDP. The Irish economy last contracted for …