Doomsayer rewrites ‘riches to rags’ tale

THREE years ago he described Ireland as a “riches to rags” story. Now one of the world’s foremost economists hails our increase in exports and growth — albeit in typical tongue-in-cheek style.

In his widely read blog, Paul Krugman, a New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winner, describes Ireland as doing “better than feared” and says this is leading international investors to conclude that, unlike Greece, it will avoid default on its international debt.

Ireland, he says, is “achieving a significant amount of ‘internal devaluation’ via deflation, which is leading investors to mark up the possibility that it might actually avoid default”.