This forum was convened by the Ministers earlier this year to act as an economic taskforce and to provide advice and ideas to map a path through the current economic crisis.
Welcoming members to the third meeting of the Forum, the deputy First Minister said: "We need to be cautious about making definite statements that an economic recovery is now in progress. For the local economy, it is still too early to be certain, particularly in the face of rising unemployment and economic inactivity levels. Whilst there are some very positive signs, it is still too early to say for definite that the worst of the recession is over.
"Surviving the economic crisis and building recovery are different things. We are still facing some challenging times and this meeting of the Forum is an ideal opportunity for us to gather further ideas to provide us with a set of actions which we can take forward."
The third meeting of the Cross Sector Advisory Forum provided an update on the implementation of the measures announced as part of the Executive's credit crunch package last December .
Commenting on these, the First Minister said: "Last December we announced a range of measures which would sustain our economy over the coming months and years. We recently undertook a review of that package, drawing together reports from the departments about where we were on each stand of the initiative.
"It is clear that we have delivered on what we promised and that the actions of the Executive have protected people and businesses from the worst effect of the recession. However, there are still some items that are a work in progress but these are actively being pursued and we will deliver.”
Notes to Editors:
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