DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish consumer sentiment improved in March but remained below January's nine-year high as consumers expressed concerns about employment prospects, a survey showed on Thursday.
The KBC Bank Ireland/ESRI Consumer Sentiment Index was 97.8 in March compared to 96.1 in February and 101.1 in January.
The survey comes after Ireland announced that 2014 economic growth hit a post-crisis high of 4.8 percent, the fastest rate in the European Union.
The marginal gain suggests households were not seeing as dramatic an improvement in their circumstances as the general performance of the economy might suggest, the survey's authors said.
"Consumers are signalling an improvement is taking hold and they expect this to strengthen further in the next twelve months but the recovery they are experiencing is modest and uneven," said KBC chief economist Austin Hughes.
"It is altogether less spectacular than the Irish economic recovery they have been reading or hearing about of late," he said.
Four out of five of the survey's main elements registered month-on-month gains, but attitudes towards employment prospects deteriorated. Those with negative views of the jobs market increased to 25 percent from 15 percent, the survey said.
But overall 62 percent of Irish consumers said they expected the economy to improve in the next twelve months while just 13 percent said they anticipated a deterioration.