This Selected Issues paper analyzes budgetary developments in Ireland during the 1990s. The paper highlights that Irish fiscal policy has been central to the social consensus on macroeconomic policies. The economic buoyancy has reinforced this cycle by facilitating the tax cuts and increases in...

This Selected Issues paper presents a description of fiscal developments in Ireland since 1980. It attempts to decompose the improvement in the fiscal accounts into contributions from pure fiscal policy measures and contributions from other factors. Fiscal policy in 1997 and the budget for 1998...

This paper proposes a signaling model that offers a new perspective on why governments deviate from optimal tax smoothing and delay debt stabilization. In our model, dependable—but not fully credible—governments have an incentive to tighten the fiscal regime when the signaling effect on...

The staff report for Ireland’s fifth review under the Extended Arrangement states that financial sector reforms continued to advance, with the two structural benchmarks for end-2011 observed. In particular, targets for bank deleveraging in 2011 were met, with almost €15 billion of...

The Irish authorities are adopting consolidation measures to meet the original fiscal targets as well as implementing structural reforms in the labor market and sheltered sectors to enhance competitiveness. Strengthened euro area support for Ireland’s growth and debt sustainability would...

This paper considers elements of macroeconomic policy central to Ireland’s objective of being among the first countries to enter into European Economic and Monetary Union. The paper analyzes the main determinants of the Irish pound/sterling exchange rate, an issue brought to the fore by the...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix on Ireland examines the productivity growth in Irish traded and nontraded goods, and provides some rough estimates of the sort of wage and inflation differentials that would be predicted by a Balassa–Samuelson framework under certain growth...

Policy implementation remains on track but recent weak GDP data point to a slower growth recovery. Real GDP declined in the first quarter, reflecting a fall in exports and weak domestic demand. Nonetheless, fiscal results remain on track and sovereign and bank bond yields have risen relatively...

Ireland’s strong policy implementation and market conditions have improved macroeconomic indicators to show positive signs. However, an uncertain medium-term outlook could hamper the prospects. Bank supported recovery through timely action on lingering financial sector issues has been...

A positive financial market and real sector developments support Ireland's capacity to exit the EU-IMF supported program at year's end. But the underlying fiscal and financial situation is still difficult, and continued strong policy execution remains paramount. Improvement in dealing with...