Escenarios Regionales

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Posts tagged ireland

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Ireland back in recession as global slowdown hits exports GDP fell 0.2% in the final quarter of last year to put Ireland officially into recession, alongside Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and Greece Ireland ended last year in recession, according to figures released on Thursday, dealing a blow to the policy of economic austerity being forced on struggling eurozone countries by the European commission and the IMF. A dip of 0.2% in GDP in the last quarter of 2011 followed a steep fall in the third quarter, after an export drive was undermined by the slowdown in global demand. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. Ireland, which had become a poster child for austerity when its economy pulled out of its nosedive earlier last year, joins fellow eurozone countries Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and Greece in recession. The Irish finance minister, Michael Noonan, promised a swift recovery last year after record export figures appeared to show foreign trade would galvanise the economy, which had to be bailed out with €90bn by the European commission, IMF and European Central Bank in December 2010. However, the euro crisis and a slowdown in some key export markets dampened demand for Irish goods. Dublin has focused on exports after it was forced to impose a dramatic squeeze on public spending by Brussels as the price of a multibillion-euro rescue package. The housing crisis that resulted from the largest property boom in the eurozone has also restricted domestic demand. Such is the poor state of the Dublin government’s finances that Irish central bank governor, Patrick Honohan, is expected to ask the ECB for permission to delay a cash payment on its banking debt. The state is due to make a €3.1bn (£2.6bn) payment to the former Anglo Irish Bank, which is then supposed to use the funds to reduce its emergency borrowings from the country’s central bank. Instead, Anglo Irish, which is a “zombie” bank closed to new business, may use the funds to buy a new Irish government bond, recycling the cash back to the state. The bond can then be used to tap funding from the ECB. Described as an accounting trick by some economists, it allows Dublin to use ECB money to prop up the bank rather than its own. Dublin faces some of the biggest debts from its banking crisis of any eurozone country after a splurge of lending in the boom years. The decision to nationalise all the major bank groups has landed the government with all their debts, which need to be serviced to avoid a default. Pictured: Ireland’s central bank governor, Patrick Honohan, is expected to ask for permission to delay a debt payment. Photograph: Julien Behal/PA

Ireland back in recession as global slowdown hits exports

GDP fell 0.2% in the final quarter of last year to put Ireland officially into recession, alongside Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and Greece

Ireland ended last year in recession, according to figures released on Thursday, dealing a blow to the policy of economic austerity being forced on struggling eurozone countries by the European commission and the IMF.

A dip of 0.2% in GDP in the last quarter of 2011 followed a steep fall in the third quarter, after an export drive was undermined by the slowdown in global demand. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.

Ireland, which had become a poster child for austerity when its economy pulled out of its nosedive earlier last year, joins fellow eurozone countries Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and Greece in recession.

The Irish finance minister, Michael Noonan, promised a swift recovery last year after record export figures appeared to show foreign trade would galvanise the economy, which had to be bailed out with €90bn by the European commission, IMF and European Central Bank in December 2010. However, the euro crisis and a slowdown in some key export markets dampened demand for Irish goods.

Dublin has focused on exports after it was forced to impose a dramatic squeeze on public spending by Brussels as the price of a multibillion-euro rescue package. The housing crisis that resulted from the largest property boom in the eurozone has also restricted domestic demand.

Such is the poor state of the Dublin government’s finances that Irish central bank governor, Patrick Honohan, is expected to ask the ECB for permission to delay a cash payment on its banking debt.

The state is due to make a €3.1bn (£2.6bn) payment to the former Anglo Irish Bank, which is then supposed to use the funds to reduce its emergency borrowings from the country’s central bank.

Instead, Anglo Irish, which is a “zombie” bank closed to new business, may use the funds to buy a new Irish government bond, recycling the cash back to the state. The bond can then be used to tap funding from the ECB. Described as an accounting trick by some economists, it allows Dublin to use ECB money to prop up the bank rather than its own.

Dublin faces some of the biggest debts from its banking crisis of any eurozone country after a splurge of lending in the boom years. The decision to nationalise all the major bank groups has landed the government with all their debts, which need to be serviced to avoid a default.

Pictured: Ireland’s central bank governor, Patrick Honohan, is expected to ask for permission to delay a debt payment. Photograph: Julien Behal/PA

Filed under Ireland europe Eurozone economic crisis financial crisis

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Ireland calls surprise referendum

In a move that has sent shockwaves across Europe, the Irish government announced on February 28 that it plans to hold a referendum on the new European fiscal compact. In spite of a context of deep recession, high unemployment and growing resentment against the EU, the Irish press believes that there is no alternative but to vote Yes.

Ireland is on course to be the first and only country in the eurozone to give a democratic verdict on the European fiscal compact. Agreed in January, the German-backed treaty which enshrines a “balanced budget” rule in national legislation and grants the European Court of Justice the right to impose sanctions against non-compliant states, is to be formally signed in Brussels by 25 EU states (the UK and Czech Republic have opted out) on Friday March 2. Following advice from Ireland’s Attorney General that a referendum would be needed for the ratification of the 10 page legal text, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) announced to the Irish parliament that “the Irish people will be asked for their authorisation” 

Filed under Ireland europe Eurozone referendum

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Pictured: A council employee closes the gate that since September 2011 has allowed residents to cross between the Catholic and Protestant sides of Alexandra Park between 9am and 3pm Antonio Olmos photographs the walls built across Northern Ireland’s capital city as a means of defusing sectarian tension. There are 99 of them, dividing nationalist Catholic neighbourhoods from loyalist Protestant ones. Some of the walls date from the early years of the Troubles, but an estimated one-third have gone up since the IRA ceasefire in 1994. Now, ‘peace gates’ are being opened in some walls in an attempt to foster greater links between communities.

Pictured: A council employee closes the gate that since September 2011 has allowed residents to cross between the Catholic and Protestant sides of Alexandra Park between 9am and 3pm

Antonio Olmos photographs the walls built across Northern Ireland’s capital city as a means of defusing sectarian tension. There are 99 of them, dividing nationalist Catholic neighbourhoods from loyalist Protestant ones. Some of the walls date from the early years of the Troubles, but an estimated one-third have gone up since the IRA ceasefire in 1994. Now, ‘peace gates’ are being opened in some walls in an attempt to foster greater links between communities.

(Source: Guardian)

Filed under europe ireland united kingdom photography