Current Account deficit no joking matter

On the glorious 12th of July Ministers Noonan and Howlin merrilly anounced that the troika found that we had met all our fiscal targets to date.

I don’t know who is fooling who, but a quick glance at the Department of Finance website (finance.gov.ie) clearly shows that the deficit on Current Account for the first half of 2012 increased by €800m over the same period last year (up from €7.2 bnto €8bn).

If this is meeting the target of reducing our deficit by €6bn this year then I’m a monkey’s uncle.