Economic ship is moving in the right direction

As we approach the end of another year, it is possible to conclude that some progress was made over the past 12 months.

On Sunday last we formally exited the three-year troika period and drew down the remainder of the €67.5bn that was pledged back in 2010, conditional on achieving a large number of conditions laid down by our troika partners. They have concluded that we have ticked most of the boxes and are in a sufficient state of health to expose ourselves to the vagaries of the markets.

This does represent progress, but should not be taken as a signal that all is returning to normality. It will still be some time and will require a large modicum of luck and some strong policy-making to return to that state of affairs, whatever normality means after five pretty horrific years for many people and businesses.