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Markets agree with Merkel about Ireland

Thursday, November 01 16:23:50

The global markets are likely to share German Chancellor Angela Merkel's view of Ireland as a "shining example" and applaud our manufacturing performance and could-be-a-lot-worse jobless figures.

That's according to Owen Callan, Senior Dealer at Danske Markets, who added that "externally, today will be viewed as another positive day for Ireland".

"Our manufacturing sector has expanded for the ninth month in a row, while unemployment figures for October held steady at 14.8pc - both gauges are at odds with Eurozone statistics, where unemployment is continually rising and manufacturing declining. These figures are bolstered by Chancellor Merkel's comments in Berlin where she seemed to indicate that the German Government is becoming publically supportive of the Ireland's attempts to gain some form of relief on the cost of rescuing our banking system," he said.

"Finally, although the Department of Finance is downgrading its GDP growth forecast for 2013 from +2.2pc to just +1.4pc, this would still once again leave Ireland with one of the highest expected growth rates in the Eurozone next year."