Ireland ‘should lower corporate tax rate’

TROUBLED eurozone countries like Ireland should be encouraged to lower their corporation tax rates to attract more industry and Germany should be willing to lose some of its business to them, two eminent German economists argue.

The two, well-known authors and journalists, blame Germany’s tough approach and delay in responding to the economic crisis for aggravating the problems of the periphery economies over the past few years.

They say that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hesitant response to the crisis was influenced by a strong anti-bailout campaign in the popular German media and partly by a moral argument about punishing the wrong doers.