Expensive euro ends Irish miracle

In this blog, we have lauded Irish economic policy.

Starting more than three decades ago, policymakers slashed corporate taxes, pumped money into higher education, deregulated aggressively, and courted multinationals desperate to escape the slow-growth, red-tape environment of Continental Europe. The strategy worked brilliantly: Ireland's economy expanded an average of 6% annually for a decade or more.

But now the miracle is over, as the euro surges against the dollar and sterling, the currencies of Ireland's two biggest trading partners. GDP growth is forecast at 1.6%.