Noonan: Ireland will not be affected by Greece’s failure to meet targets

STOCKS fell and the euro weakened yesterday as fears increased that Greece will default and eurozone finance ministers put off any decision about giving them the latest €8 billion tranche of their bailout loan.

Greece admitted it will not meet the deficit reduction targets set for it at the end of the year. They believe it will be 8.5% compared to the 7.6% target.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan said he did not believe that Greece failing to meet targets would affect Ireland. “We are very separate now in our economic progress and in our vital statistics. I do not think there is any cross over effect”, he said.