Ireland: The Fighting Irish
Full article Michael Barone Washington Examiner See 2008 Index of Economic Freedom To Learn More Visit: 2008 Index of Economic Freedom 2008 Index of Economic Freedom Excerpts: Ireland's economy is 82.4 percent free, according to our 2008 assessment, which makes it the world's 3rd freest economy. Its overall score is slightly lower than last year. Ireland is ranked 1st out of 41 countries in the European region, and its overall score is much higher than the regional average. Ireland has high levels of business freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, and freedom from corruption. Government regulation is light. Inflation is low, but Ireland's monetary score suffers somewhat from distortionary EU agricultural subsidies. Foreign investment is restricted only in a few sectors. Financial markets are transparent and open to foreign competition. Property rights are well protected by an efficient, independent judiciary. Ireland's economy is significantly free, with only two categories slightly below the average world score. Fiscal freedom and government size both score 3 percentage points below average. Government spending as a proportion of GDP is just over one-third, and the top individual income tax rate is a high 42 percent. In 1995 Ireland cut taxes, among other economic reforms. Since then, unprecedented economic growth has taken place. ________________ The OECD estimates that in Puchasing Power Parities (PPI) Ireland is ranked 4th in the world. Per Capita GDP is $34,100, 10% above that of the four big European economies. Besides cutting corporate taxes to the enticing figure of 12.5%-European corporations average 30%, the United States 35%-the Irish took measures to reduce government spending, to curb wage and price inflation, increase labor force skills and promote foreign investment. It also benefited in January 2002 when it joined 11 other EU nations in circulating the Euro. Many are coming from other countries because of the great opportunities. The people it is drawing are often high skilled and ambitious. Included are Poles, Iranians, Swedes, Chinese, Nigerians and many others, doing a wide range of jobs from serving food to high skill technical work. It is known as the Celtic Tiger because its tax cuts and other reforms produced results similar to those of the Asian Tigers in recent decades. Those Tigers were Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. In the Heritage Foundation's 2006 Index of Economic Freedom, the Celtic Tiger had the third highest score of the 157 countries studied. Interestingly the worst score went to North Korea, with Iran a notch better. Syria, Venezuela and Cuba were all very near the bottom.
Growth is strong, umemployment is low and labor participation is rising and government debt has been reduced dramatically over the past two decades. Inflation is close to the Euro area average and participation in European and Economic Monetary Union has lowered interest rates. ...Directors expected economic growth in 2006-2007 to remain strong, driven by domestic demand and accompanied by a widening current account deficit and continued rapid credit growth. The Celtic Tiger like the Asian Tigers derived that name suggesting a "Tiger Economy" as a result of each coming very aggresively out of the economic doldrums which they had experienced for several decades, before taking measures to revive those economies. The Asians pursued their improvement more on exports than the Irish did. Those countries and territories focused especially on developing goods for export to highly-industrialized nations. Both the Asian and Irish Tigers emphasized improvements in education, the results of which have been very satisfying. Projections for growth for the full year are a highly robust rate of 6.2%, with unemployment at a very low rate of 4.3%.
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