Ireland ‘benefiting’ from Greek debt crisis
In the article it states
Analysts say Ireland has unexpectedly benefited from the ongoing Greek crisis and from the bond-buying programme driven by the European Central Bank.
Immediately followed by
That has helped Ireland sell more goods and services to Britain, exporters said.
Really? I'd have said that had a LOT more to do with the recovery of the UK economy than the EU bond buying programme. After all, the UK does not benefit directly from that programme. So if the UK is able to buy more goods and services from Ireland that is because the UK is more able to afford to buy those goods.
Which has little to do with the whole Greek tragedy unfolding. Except in the strength of the £, which you might say is helping.
If the analysts had said that the devaluation of the € due to the unfolding Greek Crisis and the quantitative easing of the ECB is helping Ireland sell more to the UK, then I might have sort of agreed with the article. After all, the difference in relative economies is so large that a small change in the UK would have a large change in Ireland. As a reality check, the entire Irish debt under bailout (€203bn or 110% of gdp), is less than Osborne saved in cutting the UK deficit in the first 3 years in government. In fact it's less than the UK deficit (not debt which is €2,100bn), was when Osborne took over in 2010.
But, I guess, for some it's more important to believe something than to actually understand something. The EU is not funding the expansion of the UK economy, that's internal UK and the rest of the world. The EU, generally, in terms of buying UK goods and services, is flat for the UK, or even turning negative as our goods become more expensive with the collapse in value of the €.
