Ireland's economy downgraded by Standard and Poor's
The recent rollercoaster ride of the Irish economy touched a low point today with news that the sovereign debt rating on Irish government debt has fallen from "AAA" to "AA+" which is a significant downgrade for a country. Ireland is only the second Eurozone country to feel the wrath of the credit rating agencies with Spain losing its "AAA" rating just a short while ago.
While the downgrade may not look an awfully lot on paper in the real world this will increase debt funding costs for the Irish government in the future and make borrowing more expensive. This comes at a time when the Irish authorities are in desperate need of significant capital to try and refloat an economy which has collapsed of late. The banking system is in disarray, one of the major banks in Ireland has been nationalised and there are various ongoing criminal investigations regarding allegations of fraud.
All in all the Irish financial industry is in a real mess and there are renewed concerns that the government will at some stage need to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund. Despite a number of denials by the government there would appear to be limited options open in the short term and we may not have even reached the bottom of the current economic cycle!
Share this..
Related stories
Sterling falls to 2 month low against the dollar
The UK currency is again under pressure after revised gross domestic product figures fell short of economist's expectations within 0.2% contraction in the UK economy in the third quarter against expectations of a 0.1% reduction. While the consensus opinion is that the UK will move out of recession in the final quarter of 2009 there is concern at the sluggish performance of the economy over the las...
Read MoreBrit businesses defying crunch, says BCC
The majority of UK businesses remain optimistic of their prospects this year despite the credit crunch, a new survey has suggested. According to a study conducted by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), nearly two in three UK firms reported that they have no plans to amend their expansion plans this year. Meanwhile, a similar proportion said they had experienced no extra difficulty in securing...
Read MoreBoris Johnson urged to use London's growing rubbish pile
A report by the London Assembly has confirmed that London produces around 22,000,000 tonnes of waste each and every year and only 22% of this waste is being recycled. The report suggests that non-recyclable waste could be reused, without emitting gases into the atmosphere, to power 2 million homes in the capital and provide heating for 625,000 houses. When you consider this would effectively be fr...
Read MoreProtectionism at the highest level
In a rather bizarre twist of fate the Gordon Brown quote of "British jobs from British workers" has come back to haunt the Prime Minister in more ways than one. While he has often suggested that protectionism is not the way forward, a number of reporters have been commenting on the fact that the Prime Minister of the UK can only be British (or Irish) with no "foreigners" allowed to take up the pos...
Read MoreThe strong pound hits overseas property investors
The UK has always been a hotbed of property investors with many looking overseas to acquire "cheap property" in emerging markets. However, as we covered last week, the UK pound has come under significant pressure due in the main to various comments from the Bank of England and the cost of assets overseas has increased for many people. So what can you do to protect yourself?
Many peo...