Plenty to be worried about ahead of budget

Last week the CSO published more detail on Ireland’s now infamous 26.3% GDP growth rate in 2016. 

The artificially inflated figure has led to confidence in Ireland’s statistics being undermined, with economists left in the dark on the true health of the economy.

The Central Bank has suggested the CSO should publish a more meaningful measure of economic activity, not least because the current GDP data distort fiscal aggregates such as Ireland’s debt/GDP ratio heading into Budget 2017.