2  See: www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2012/cr12336.pdf. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  and the necessary process of bank deleveraging in Europe have not helped recovery in Ireland. While the overall direction of the policy response within Europe to the crisis has been appropriate, the pace of change has been uneven and this has generated a high level of uncertainty which has not been beneficial.
The Government has made a good start in re-entering debt markets, but the market is conscious that economic conditions remain fragile and the stock of public debt is very high at 120 per cent of GDP (or almost 150 per cent of GNP, which may be a more relevant measure in the case of Ireland).