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Press Statement

Preasráiteas

06 December 2018

Press Statement Macroeconomic Scoreboard 2017

Ireland’s Macroeconomic Scoreboard shows improvement in economic imbalances in 2017
  • The 2017 Scoreboard shows just five breaches of EU thresholds, compared with six in 2016 and down from a high of 10 breaches in 2010
  • Government debt, house prices and private sector debt remain among the breaches in 2017
  • Unemployment, at 8.4% (3-year average) is no longer breaching the threshold set by the EU
  • This year’s edition looks at the 10-year period since Ireland’s economic crisis
  • Go to release: Macroeconomic Scoreboard 2017

    The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (6 December 2018) published Ireland’s Macroeconomic Scoreboard, an EU wide measure of economic imbalances in member states’ economies. It shows just five breaches of EU thresholds for 2017. This is down from six breaches in 2016 and down from a high of 10 out of 14 breaches in 2010.

    The breaches for 2017 include Government Debt (68.4% of GDP), Deflated House Prices (9.5% annual change), and Private Sector Debt (243.6% of GDP). However, the Scoreboard shows that for the first time in the 10-year period examined the combined total of Irish owned debt (households and Irish non-financial corporations) is below the EU Threshold of 133% of GDP.

    This year’s edition of the Scoreboard features a new chapter on ‘Ireland’s Economic Crisis – 10 years on’, which looks at trends in housing, construction, retail and migration alongside some of the more standard Scoreboard indicators like government debt and unemployment. The publication also provides detailed breakdowns of headline and auxiliary indicators including analysis using the CSO's modified GNI (GNI*) and modified current account (CA*) measures. 

    Commenting on the publication, Senior Statistician Christopher Sibley said: “Drawing on sources from across the CSO, this year’s publication is a special edition of the Macroeconomic Scoreboard providing extra analysis on some of the indicators that have been repeatedly requested from the CSO over the pre- and post-economic crisis years.”

    The Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) is an annual process which the European Commission undertakes, using a scoreboard of 14 headline indicators and 28 auxiliary indicators. This screens for any macroeconomic imbalances that may occur in member states. Each of the 14 headline indicators have a threshold, set by the European Commission, beyond which economic imbalances are determined to have occurred. The financial crisis in 2008 highlighted the importance of the early detection and correction of macroeconomic imbalances across EU countries and the euro area. This led the European Commission to develop the MIP which came into force in December 2011 as part of the 'six-pack' of legislative acts, which strengthens the monitoring of macroeconomic policies in the EU and the euro area.

    The CSO produces Ireland’s Macroeconomic Scoreboard publication in line with the European Commission’s report, to provide further insight and analysis on the range of indicators for Ireland.

    For further information contact:

    Christina Feeney (+353) 1 498 4233 or Christopher Sibley (+353) 1 498 4305

    or email bop@cso.ie

    -- ENDS --