IMF’s snapshot of our financial future

The latest report of the IMF following Ireland’s 10th programme review gives an interesting snapshot of how we are performing, but more importantly, the report provides us with an outsider’s vision of Ireland’s future.

Paraphrasing, the report outlines that Ireland’s success in raising funding through the NTMA is positive. However, our longer term prospects are questionable, due to high public and private debts.

On public debts, the IMF report suggests that the new European banking union should cease the spiral of low lending causing low growth. The problem with low lending is that it can cause a crystallisation of further contingent liabilities, in other words, low lending causes defaults.