Minister for Finance welcomes CSO data confirming that Ireland had the fastest-growing economy in the EU in 2014

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (12 ^th of March) released Quarterly National Accounts for the fourth quarter of 2014 and the full year of 2014. Commenting on the strongest annual growth figures since 2007, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan T.D. stated:

“The CSO figures for 2014 show that the Irish economy grew by 4.8% in GDP terms and by 5.2% in GNP terms in 2014. This confirms that Ireland had the fastest-growing economy in the EU in 2014.

Today’s numbers are consistent with the Budget day GDP forecast of 3.9% for 2015. The Spring Economic Statement is due for release in mid-April. At that point we will publish updated forecasts for 2015.

Economic growth is now more broadly balanced, exports are contributing due to competitiveness gains while the domestic economy is now also contributing positively too. The turnaround that we are seeing in the Irish economy is a direct consequence of the policies pursued by this Government and the sacrifices made by the Irish people.  All sectors of the economy grew last year, including agri-food, tourism, retail, construction, as well as business and financial services. We will now build on this recovery by continuing to introduce measures that drive growth and create jobs.

There was further positive news this morning as the NTMA issued a 30-year bond at a record low interest rate of 1.31%. This is evidence of the market reaction to Ireland’s continued growth.

I was also pleased to announce this morning that I have instructed the NTMA to proceed with the early repayment of the final €5.5 billion of IMF loans that we secured agreement to repay. The remaining €1.6 billion in proceeds from the sale of the Bank of Ireland preference shares and the €400 million from the repayment of the Permanent TSB contingent capital instrument will be used to part-finance this repayment. This early repayment of the majority of IMF loans will deliver savings of over €1.5 billion over the lifetime of the loans”.