Press Statement

Preasráiteas

23 November 2020

Go to release: Macroeconomic Scoreboard 2019

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (23 November 2020) published Ireland’s Macroeconomic Scoreboard 2019, an EU wide measure of economic imbalances in member states’ economies. The Scoreboard measures a range of indicators designed to screen for potential macroeconomic imbalances in the Irish economy.

Commenting on the publication, Senior Statistician John Sheridan said: ‘The 2019 Macroeconomic Scoreboard shows that out of the 14 indicators screening for economic imbalances, Ireland is breaching two of the EU thresholds. This is down from a high of 10 breaches in 2010 and 2011, and we’re seeing continuing improvement in the number of breaches in 2019.’

The breaches for 2019 include international investment position at -174% of GDP, breaching the EU threshold of -35%. Private sector debt, at 202% of GDP, also continued to breach the EU threshold of 133%. However, the combined total of Irish-owned debt (households and Irish non-financial corporations) was below the EU threshold, and made up less than half of total private sector debt. The government debt and deflated house prices indicators no longer breached their thresholds in 2019.

The Scoreboard publication also includes indicators designed to measure economic competitiveness, for example the current account balance, export market share and labour costs, and includes indicators designed to screen for internal imbalances such as unemployment.  

The CSO’s Macroeconomic Scoreboard publication draws on sources from across the CSO and provides additional analysis on the range of indicators, including analysis using the CSO's modified gross national income (GNI*) and modified current account (CA*) measures.

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.

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