The recent financial crisis resulted in a steep contraction in the domestic economy together with a sharp decline in inflation. The Phillips curve model of inflation argues that inflation should be negatively related to economic performance and this would seem to be a potential explanatory...

This Letter attempts to assess the potential impact of implementing the recently proposed proportionate loan-to-value ratio on the wider housing market. Using a dual micro and macro simulation strategy, we find evidence for some moderate negative impacts of the LTV cap on house prices and...

The Prudential Capital Assessment Review (PCAR) 2011 uncovered significant potential losses in the Irish banking sector, leading to a considerable recapitalisation. This letter uses a large sample of the loan level data provided for PCAR 2011 to present descriptive statistics on the SME lending...

The high level of mortgage arrears in the Irish financial system and the associated overhang on economic growth underlines the importance of prudent lending standards throughout the property cycle. Macro-prudential tools such as loan-to-value (LTV) ratio caps and loan-to-income (LTI) ratio caps...

Changes in household consumption, which accounts for more than half of gross domestic demand expenditure, can have a significant impact on output and employment growth. This Economic Letter looks at the main drivers of household consumption, paying particular attention to the impact of the...

Financing for working capital and investment is essential for the survival and growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The recent financial crisis has provoked much debate in Ireland and Europe around the provision of bank financing to SMEs. This article provides empirical evidence, using...

At the end of 2012, almost one-fifth of owner-occupier mortgages were in arrears. A further five per cent not in arrears were classied as "restructured" loans. This Economic Letter looks at the impact of financial distress on household expenditure patterns by comparing the behaviour of...

This Letter describes the construction of a new monthly business cycle indicator of the Irish economy. The index of economic activity draws information from a range categories of data covering output, income, employment, external demand and credit. A statistical method is used to extract a...

Using data from the Quarterly National Household Survey, we analyse the determinants of re-employment prob- abilities among Irish workers from 2000-2012. We nd that an individual's probability of exiting unemployment diminishes with the length of stay in unemployment and age. The likelihood of...

Using data from a survey of degree graduates, this Letter presents some new empirical evidence on trends in starting salaries for new graduate labour market entrants pre and post the downturn in the Irish economy. While aggregate wage data suggest that the extent of downward wage adjustment in...