Back in the worst days of the recession, Irish people took solace in the knowledge that ‘there’s always someone worse off’. That ‘someone’ was Greece.

The chief of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) — a regular visitor during the financial crisis — has warned that, despite an impressive economic recovery, Ireland should never forget it’s a small country that belongs to “the Avis Club”.

Ireland’s low tax rates for companies were the subject of criticism from the Luxembourg prime minister who demanded “fair competition” within the EU.

The head of the international body responsible for policing the world’s tax havens that help shelter the rich and powerful last night criticised Panama as a “holdout” state.

The Organisation for Economic and Cooperation Development regularly produces country-specific reports on its members and lists policy prescriptions and best-in-class score cards.

Before the economic crash, OECD reports on its member countries focused on the structural problems afflicting the individual economies, be it the dominance of a national telecoms company or so-called sheltered areas of the economy which didn’t face competition, including the professions such as lawyers or pharmacists.

Prices of all major agricultural products are set to decline in real terms over 2015-2024, according to a new global report.

Hazardous and “binge” drinking is on the rise internationally among young people and especially young women, a study shows.

Greece must become more just and efficient to avoid a repeat of its economic crisis, its prime minister Alexis Tsipras said as he visited Paris to seek the blessings of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development for a series of reforms he has promised.

Widening inequality creates a drag on growth that can be counteracted by tax policies to benefit the less well-off, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The growth rate in the UK would have been higher had the gap between rich and poor not widened in recent decades, a report from an international economic think-tank has found.

The shady world of corrupt government and ruthless companies bribing them to win lucrative contracts is normally associated with the third world.

Finance ministers and tax chiefs from 51 countries signed an agreement yesterday to automatically swap tax information, which Germany’s finance minister said heralded the end of tax evasion via secret bank accounts.

US treasury secretary Jacob Lew said the department is finishing work to limit the benefits companies gain from moving their addresses overseas even if his action won’t be enough to stop the practice known as inversion.

A comprehensive global action plan on corporation tax systems revealed by the OECD will force Ireland to change some of the elements that have made the country attractive to multinational companies.

Real wage growth in the developed world has come to a “virtual standstill” since 2009 and has fallen in some countries, according to a new report.

The OECD has cut its global growth expectations again and warned that the eurozone faced not just internal challenges but also risks from the US and emerging market economies.

Ireland is battling an international tax backlash as ministers scramble to defend the country’s generous rates for multinational employers.

The OECD is not “going to lose sleep” over the nominal amount of cutbacks in October’s budget as long as the deficit reduction targets agreed with the troika are met.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says more needs to be done to address unemployment in Ireland.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says Ireland is back on its feet and in growth mode.

The leaders of the G20 have signed up to a new plan to make multinational companies pay more taxes, according to officials.

Loopholes allowing multinational companies to slash their tax bills to little or nothing are to be closed under an international crackdown unveiled today.

Multinationals that use countries’ tax regimes to avoid or minimise the amount of tax they pay face renewed pressure after the OECD presented its report on the steps needed to clamp down on tax evasion and avoidance.

AS THE Government ratchets up the pressure on struggling families by introducing an array of new taxes, the question of whether multinational companies are paying their fair share is timely.

IT is just as well that former IRA commander Martin McGuinness has deigned to grant Queen Elizabeth II an audience because time is running out — officially (though, perhaps not “provisionally”).

The eurozone crisis poses the single biggest risk to the global economy, with cutbacks in countries hardest hit by the crisis particularly vulnerable, the OECD warned.

Structural reforms including wage reductions, labour market reforms and changes to unemployment benefit will have much less effect on improving Ireland’s economic performance because many of the adjustments have already been made, according to the OECD.

Pressure mounted on Europe to build an even bigger financial stabilisation fund to head off sovereign debt concerns, with the United States, Brazil, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) all urging an increase.

A meeting of the finance chiefs of the 17 eurozone countries to discuss Greece’s second multibillion bailout planned for Wednesday has been called off after Athens failed to deliver on several demands made by its partners in the currency union.

THE European Commission is pushing for a coordinated capital injection for banks to shield them from the fallout of a potential Greek default as Germany urges each country to prepare its own blueprint.

THE scale of Ireland’s unemployment problem was set out in stark terms in a new international report detailing global concerns over rising joblessness.

TOKYO Japan’s economy contracted during the April-June quarter at an annual rate of 2.1%, worse than the initial estimate, the government said today, underlining the damage from the March earthquake disaster.

Political Correspondent Conor Ryan selects some of the best quotes in a week of political strife

THE case for reintroducing third-level fees is strengthened by the latest OECD report on global education funding but the economic think-tank has also warned against up-front charges for students.

Ireland had one of the lowest education budgets among developed nations as the boom years drew to a close, an independent study revealed today.

UNEMPLOYMENT here should peak this year, with inflation returning in 2011 when the economy will grow by 3%, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has predicted.

IRELAND will have permanently lower living standards, the world’s leading economic authority last night warned in a damning assessment of the state of the nation.

THE number of people unemployed throughout the world could rise by up to 25 million by 2010 because of the global financial and economic crisis, secretary-general of the OECD Angel Gurria said yesterday.

Climate change could treble the number of people threatened by coastal flooding over the next 60 years, one forecaster said today.