The Central Bank has significantly scaled back its predictions for Ireland's economy, due to the Ukraine war.
It says the domestic economy will grow by 4.8 per cent this year - compared to a prediction of over 7 per cent in January.
The bank says the war has reduced household incomes, and led to higher costs for businesses.
Director of economics and statistics, Mark Cassidy, says inflation will also remain high for the rest of the year.
"The inflation rate increased to 6.9% in March driven by higher fossil fuel and energy prices, and this will be the highest rate in almost 40 years.
"Our expectation is for further increases in the coming months, including also rises in food prices.
"We expect the overall rate to peak around 8% are in the middle of this year and we expect an average rate this year of 6.5%".
