Gerlach: No option but budget surplus

Running budget surpluses is the most effective way open to Ireland to reduce the economy’s debt burden over the longer term, Deputy Governor of the Irish Central Bank Stefan Gerlach believes.

“It will no doubt be difficult to achieve to do so, but there is no other option,” he said in a speech to the German-Irish Chamber of Commerce yesterday.

Before the banking crisis erupted in 2008, Irish Government debt was the second-lowest in the eurozone at 25% of GDP.