The Department of Finance has released some useful documents, explaining in more detail the drivers of the general government balance, with a particular focus on various one-off items:
A hidden gem in these figures: the banks seem to be paying up on the State Guarantee. They seem to have paid €110m for 2008 and are expected to pay €455M this year. I would have thought the Government would be trumpeting these figures, rather than burying them in a technical report to Brussels.
[Quote] A bank guarantee scheme was established by statute last autumn following a Government announcement on 30 September 2008…The participating institutions are Allied Irish Bank, Anglo-Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, EBS, Irish Life & Permanent, Irish Nationwide Building Society, Postbank Ireland and their subsidiaries. In return for receiving the Government guarantee, these institutions must pay a quarterly fee, which is intended to cover the increased cost assigned to Government borrowing by the market due to the existence of the guarantee…. Payment from banks for participation in the scheme in Q4 2008 was not due until January 2009; in line with the ESA95 accrual principle, this amount has been accrued back to 2008. (In fact, some €78m out of the €110m due had already been paid over by the covered institutions by end-2008.) [Endquote]
“The large negative balance (-238) for NORA in 2008 reflects a high level of strategic oil stock purchases in that year, made in order to bring NORA into compliance with EC and IEA directives on physical stock levels.”
Would it be possible to find the average price NORA paid? Was it $147pb?
4 replies on “More Detail on the Fiscal Position”
Philip, a chara
the letter link provided is dead. Here is the link :
http://www.finance.gov.ie/documents/publications/other/2009/maastrichtlettmar09.pdf
Your Irish Times listing turned up on Barry Ritzholt’s blog:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/04/financial-pugilism-and-offbeat-analysis/
A hidden gem in these figures: the banks seem to be paying up on the State Guarantee. They seem to have paid €110m for 2008 and are expected to pay €455M this year. I would have thought the Government would be trumpeting these figures, rather than burying them in a technical report to Brussels.
[Quote] A bank guarantee scheme was established by statute last autumn following a Government announcement on 30 September 2008…The participating institutions are Allied Irish Bank, Anglo-Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, EBS, Irish Life & Permanent, Irish Nationwide Building Society, Postbank Ireland and their subsidiaries. In return for receiving the Government guarantee, these institutions must pay a quarterly fee, which is intended to cover the increased cost assigned to Government borrowing by the market due to the existence of the guarantee…. Payment from banks for participation in the scheme in Q4 2008 was not due until January 2009; in line with the ESA95 accrual principle, this amount has been accrued back to 2008. (In fact, some €78m out of the €110m due had already been paid over by the covered institutions by end-2008.) [Endquote]
“The large negative balance (-238) for NORA in 2008 reflects a high level of strategic oil stock purchases in that year, made in order to bring NORA into compliance with EC and IEA directives on physical stock levels.”
Would it be possible to find the average price NORA paid? Was it $147pb?