Central Bank's Ahearne: Irish firms need State-backed ultra-cheap bank loans to survive

The Government will almost certainly have to guarantee ultra-cheap loans for Irish banks to pump into businesses    if many small firms are to survive the Covid-19 economic storm, according to economics professor Alan Ahearne, who is an adviser to the Central Bank.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, the director of the Whitaker Institute of Economics at the National University of Ireland Galway said that many small businesses will fail to reopen if they can’t tap near-zero bank loans that are guaranteed by the State.