These factors included:   Broad macro policy stability, which was built on the back of successful fiscal consolidation in the late 1980s;    A strong focus on improving the economy’s external competitiveness through wage restraint;    Strong growth in labour supply and a dividend from earlier investment in education;    A marked increase in inward foreign direct investment;    Increased infrastructural investment (partly funded by the EU); and    Micro reforms of labour and product markets.
3. The growth of imbalances  By 2000, economic convergence with Europe had been achieved, full employment had effectively been reached and there was little spare capacity left in the economy. At that point, one would have expected growth to slow, moving to the more moderate rates normally seen in post-convergent economies.