{"id":255716,"date":"2026-01-21T06:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T06:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/255716\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T06:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T06:54:10","slug":"economic-inequality-is-worsening-in-northern-ireland-report-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/255716\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic inequality is worsening in Northern Ireland, report says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Ireland<\/a> is becoming more unequal economically, with Belfast<\/a> now far outstripping the rest \u2013 especially west of the river Bann, a report from the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre says.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland had \u201csignificant and persistent regional disparities\u201d in Gross Value Added (GVA) \u2013 which measures wages, rent, taxes and profits, minus the cost of inputs, it said.<\/p>\n

The gap has increased over time. In 1998, Belfast had a GVA that was 42 per cent higher than the Northern Ireland average, but this was now 80 per cent, the study said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Stormont\u2019s<\/a> funding crisis will do little to help the situation, with day-to-day spending in 2026\/2027 rising by just 0.8 per cent, and by a further 2 per cent in the following 12 months.<\/p>\n

Already, the Department of Health and the Department of Education in Stormont have warned that the budget increases \u2013 far below those currently available in the Republic \u2013 will pose challenges.<\/p>\n

\"GVA\"<\/p>\n

Illustrating the gap, average GVA per capita in Belfast stands at just shy of \u00a355,000 (\u20ac63,000) per head per year, while Ards and North Down<\/a> stands at less than \u00a320,000 annually, with Mid and East Antrim<\/a> recording less than \u00a325,000.<\/p>\n

Employment rates in Northern Ireland\u2019s 11 local authorities \u201chave not altered significantly\u201d, highlighting the challenges facing people living in poorer-off districts to find opportunities \u201ceven when employment is growing across the wider economy\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is \u201cparticularly the case\u201d for districts with \u201cpersistently lower employment rates\u201d, such as Derry<\/a> City and Strabane, but also parts of Belfast \u2013 despite the city\u2019s top place overall in the GVA league.<\/p>\n

Looking to the future, the Ulster University<\/a> Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC) warned that long-term growth depended on increased productivity and on targeted policy decisions by Stormont to address regional imbalances.<\/p>\n

Contemporary economic policy attempts focuses on a \u201cpeople in places\u201d approach, which combines regeneration and infrastructure investment with training for workers and grants for businesses.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Stormont\u2019s Department of Economy launched its Economic Vision report to bring about regional balance, which the UUEPC says rightly puts decentralisation at the core of the document.<\/p>\n

However, this required \u201cthe right leadership and initiatives to tackle core local weaknesses\u201d over many years. \u201cThese imbalances have existed for decades, they will not be reversed in a few short years,\u201d the UUEPC said.<\/p>\n

The economic study forecasted modest job growth of 0.5 per cent this year before it strengthened over the longer term \u2013 but decisions taken now or soon on productivity growth would shape the region\u2019s future growth.<\/p>\n

UUEPC director Gareth Hetherington said the figures reflected weak business and consumer confidence combined with geopolitical uncertainty, to which Northern Ireland was not immune.<\/p>\n

While 2025 began strongly, contractions occurred later, hitting employment. \u201cDespite this subdued end to 2025, early indications for 2026 suggest progress, albeit modest, with stronger growth anticipated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, the report highlighted how Northern Ireland was becoming a more service-dominated economy, with manufacturing falling back. This has meant workers moving from higher-paid, higher-productivity manufacturing jobs to lower-paid service ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland is becoming more unequal economically, with Belfast now far outstripping the rest \u2013 especially west of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[80306,4501,9686,7726,21753,61,60,43,2443,26190,96724],"class_list":["post-255716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-antrim","tag-belfast","tag-common-ground","tag-derry","tag-down","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-stormont-assembly","tag-ulster-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}