Survey on Income and Living Conditions

The results from the 2012 wave of the EU-SILC have been published by the CSO.

There had been some difficulties with the statistics estimated from the survey in previous years which may account for the lag in getting the 2012 data published.  The data was collected between January 2012 and January 2013.

The main results are summarised in this table.

Of the reported 2012 changes in the poverty and income inequality measures, only the change in the deprivation rate is reported as being statistically significant.

The average weekly net equivalised disposable income for the bottom decile was €118.55 in 2012.  Income decile data was not provided in the 2011 release and the 2010 figures were withdrawn.  In the 2009 release, the average weekly equivalised net disposable income for the bottom decile was €160.05.

Comparable figures for the top decile are €1,041.71 in 2009 and €958.44 in 2012.  It should be noted that possible differences in the composition of the deciles between years make such changes difficult to fully interpret.  The income shares by decile are provided in this table.

The first table here shows that average equivalised disposable income for the population fell by 10.5 per cent between 2009 (€23,326) and 2012 (€20,856).  The second table shows that the share going to the bottom decile fell by 16.7 per cent between the same years (from 3.6 per cent in 2009 to 3.0 per cent in 2012). 

There is more detail in the full publication.  The Department of Social Protection have issued this press release.

Assorted Eurozone links

Richard Curran and Fintan O’Toole on the implications for Ireland of Greece’s recent bond auction, here and here.

Ashoka Mody on Europe’s deepening muddle, here.

CESifo Forum: Articles on Ireland

The new issue of CESifo Forum has several short articles on Ireland by myself, Patrick Honohan, John Fitzgerald, Stephen Kinsella and Aidan Regan – it is here.

Stability Programme Update

A DoF presentation with some of the key forecasts in the SPU is available here. There is also a press release.

The full text is here.

Government Finance Statistics

The CSO have published the end-2013 update of these series:

There isn’t much to surprise in the figures.  Gross debt at the end of 2013 was €203 billion (124 per cent of GDP).  Once offsetting assets of €42 billion in the same categories are accounted for net debt was €161 billion.  The assets were:

  • Cash: €23.8 billion
  • Bonds: €10.8 billion
  • Loans: €7.1 billion

Other assets not used in the net debt calculation are include shares and other equity of €29.8 billion and other financial assets (mainly accounts receivable) of €9.2 billion.

The market value of Ireland’s €203 billion of nominal debt instruments was €219 billion at the end of the year.  The estimated pension liabilities of the government are put at €98 billion, while contingent liabilities are “just” €73 billion.

The 2013 general government deficit is provisionally estimated to have been €11.8 billion (7.2 per cent of GDP) from €13.4 billion in 2012.

The ‘operating balance’ of the government sector went from a deficit of €12.5 billion in 2012 to one of €11.8 billion in 2013, an improvement of just €0.7 billion.  The improvement in the overall deficit was greater because of changes in the capital budget.

Gross fixed capital formation was further reduced from €3.1 billion in 2012 to €2.7 billion in 2013.  With consumption of fixed capital at €2.3 billion the increase in the public capital stock was just €0.4 billion.  The main change in the capital account was a €0.7 billion gain in the ‘net acquisition of unproduced assets’ which likely relates to things such as mobile phone and lottery licenses.

Revenue from taxes and social contributions rose from €49.1 billion to €51.6 billion, while investment income was up around €0.5 billion to €2.7 billion. Much of these increases were offset by an increase in interest expenditure of €1.5 billion to €7.4 billion.  Social transfers paid decreased from €29.0 billion to €28.6 billion, of which €24.0 billion were in cash.