Craic On

David McWilliams has been looking at the reasons for the Irish economy starting to recover. He said that the recovery of our best trading partner, the UK was the main reason for it. Here is what he wrote:-

Economy

The best thing that happened in the past year has been the increase in jobs in the country. Why did this happen? And why did it happen in the second half of 2013?

My best guess, given that domestic demand was held back by tax hikes, spending cuts and a lack of credit, is that it has come from outside. But what was the most positive development in Ireland’s meaningful trading partners?

Europe

The European economy remained on the canvas last year and it is now flirting with deflation and record levels of unemployment. The US economy is in better shape, granted, but hardly match fit — as evidenced by the Fed’s injection of €85bn into the economy every single month.

The economy that really surpassed expectations was the UK — our biggest trading partner, home to our largest recent emigrant population, our biggest tourist market and by far the largest buyer of Irish agricultural produce.

UK

When looking for reasons the Irish economy did better in the second half of the year, look no further than a massive boost from the UK’s much better-than-expected performance. This also propelled sterling upwards, making Irish companies competitive in Britain and Ireland a cheaper place to visit for our neighbours.

Yet, if you were looking for anyone in official Ireland to credit the UK’s role in the past 12 months, you’d be waiting a long time because as usual they are in Brussels pleading with some Eurocrat or other.

Here’s whole article here