Northern Ireland economy 'to grow by 1% in 2017 and 2018'

The economists predict a growth of just 1% in both 2017 and 2018

The Northern Ireland economy will grow by just 1% in both 2017 and 2018, economists forecast.

The Ulster University economists expect business investment will be delayed or cancelled as a result of policy uncertainty around the Brexit process.

However, they predict that consumer spending will remain solid, allowing the economy to avoid recession.

They caution the effects of Brexit and a Trump presidency mean "significant uncertainty" for forecasts.

The economists believe that as greater certainty emerges, growth rates will increase towards the end of this decade.

They expect the growth rate for 2016 to be just under 2%, which by recent standards is a reasonable performance.

The forecasts also predict that UK inflation will increase sharply to more than 3% in 2017 and will reach 4% in 2019.

In response, they expect interest rates to rise from their historic lows and reach 3% by 2019.