Worldwide OfficesExport figures flatter to deceive
Ireland has had a number of pats on the back recently but let’s not kid ourselves.
Ajai Chopra, IMF mission chief to Ireland, said the Irish are doing everything right in getting the country’s affairs in order and Europe should do more to help.
The EU Commission has said that Ireland’s fiscal targets are being met following the joint troika rmission in Dublin last month and that another E3bn can be released from the bailout fund.
And according to a new report on competitiveness by Goodbody Stockbrokers’ economists Dermot O’Leary and Juliet Tennant, because we don’t have a currency to devalue, we’ve had to do it “the hard way” by slashing domestic costs and we’ve done this at an impressive pace.
Additionally, Irish household debt fell sharply in the final quarter of last year, sending net financial wealth up by 6pc, the latest Central Bank figures show.
Ireland’s trade surplus rose by 3pc in March, latest official figures show, however this was more to do with a massive 14pc annual fall in imports as consumer spending continued to slump.
In fact, the value of exports in March has only reached levels last seen in 2002, the CSO data showed.
Roger Brownlie for Vistage Ireland
11:31 am on December 22nd, 2011
[...] in May I wrote an article called Export figures flatter to deceive – well they don’t any more. The story said that while exports were doing well they were still [...]