"When you're in the catch-up phase of an economy after a recession you'll get very high growth figures in the early stages, but as it settles I would hope we will have growth of around 3% for the next five years."
- Irish Finance Minister
Economic growth in Ireland jumped to 7.7% in the second quarter of this year on the annual basis, while quarter-on-quarter it added as much as 1.5%. Strong exports and business investment pushed the country's GDP up. International deliveries added 13% in Q2, while consumer spending rose 1.8%. Economy of Ireland was one of the most successful and fastest-growing in Europe during pre-crisis times. However, unstable political situation, high budget deficit and government debt levels led to the sharp GDP decline in 2009. For the year 2014, it managed to recover losses and continues to grow, with the GDP increase being the highest among EU countries. The government has subsequently upgraded the growth outlook for this year.
It is worth pointing out that Ireland has finished with the EU-IMF bailout program, as it gave the country more space for manoeuvre in terms of controlling its budget situation. At the moment, with tax receipts rising faster than expected, country's officials are planning the way of how to spend excess funds, possibly to invest them into development programs. Nevertheless, following crisis times, a lot of Irish families are still suffering from low employment advance, as well as increasing housing prices, as they picked up 23% in the past year, which makes it less affordable to buy new property.
© Dukascopy Bank SA