New World Economic Outlook analytical studies from the IMF

The IMF has just released the ‘analytical’ chapters of its April 2009 World Economic Outlook report.  You can download these here.

Chapter 3. From Recession to Recovery: How Soon and How Strong?

Chapter 4. How Linkages Fuel the Fire: The Transmission of Financial Stress from Advanced to Emerging Economies

Looking Beyond the Crisis

A couple of opinion pieces in today’s Irish Times emphasise that the resolution of the crisis cannot be de-linked from planning for a new type of post-crisis socio-political system:

Michael O’Sullivan’s article is here.

Fintan O’Toole’s article is here.

Ireland in Comparative Perspective

Peter Sutherland has an op-ed in Monday’s FT: you can read it here.

Global Competitiveness Report

If you would like to participate in the online survey that feeds into the compilation of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, please email ncc at forfas.ie

Ireland and World Trade

The Irish economy is undergoing a very large contraction this year.  The major source of the decline is the contraction in domestically-orientated activities.  It is true that exports are also falling – but it is important to put that into a global context.  The graph below shows projected export growth for 2009 for a range of countries (OECD projections, except Ireland where it is last week’s Central Bank forecast). In a cross-country comparative context, the global trade shock is bigger for many other countries.  (However, a given decline in export growth has a bigger impact here than in many of these countries, in view of our high export share in output.)  One reason is that we do not produce the types of durables and capital goods that have taken the biggest hit in terms of cancelled orders and so on.

Exports 2009