The Republic of Ireland was the second Eurozone nation to need an EU/IMF bailout after Greece. In contrast to Greece, it has completed the terms of its bailout and has just posted its best manufacturing output figures for 15 years. The two economies are of comparable size: the Greek GDP value was $241.7 billion in 2013 whilst the Irish figure was $217.8 billion – the Irish economy is growing whilst the Greek economy has shrunk since 2013 and is more or less flat currently. Unemployment in Eire stands at 10.5% whereas more than 1 in 4 of the Greek workforce is officially idle.
Ireland has been able to borrow money on the international markets at rates lower than the 5% interest charged on its bailout by the IMF – 15 year Irish bonds attract 2.94% interest now (compared to 15% at the height of the crisis), providing a significant saving over the IMF rate; the rate paid to the EU under EFSM is 3%. The Irish problems stemmed from a collapse of a construction bubble which threatened to destroy the Irish banking sector.
A recent Purchasing Managers’ Index value for Ireland shows that manufacturing output is up to a 15-year high up to 57.5 last month (a value above 50 indicates expansion in the sector). This compares very favourably with the comparable Eurozone average figure of 51 – the French manufacturing sector is continuing to contract, posting a value of 47.6, the worst performance of any nation in the bloc. Greece and Austria also experienced contraction in manufacturing output in February. The German figure showed continued gains in February, strengthening from a January figure of 50.9 to stand at 51.1 at the latest reading.