Economics 20/01/2010: Long term comparatives for Ireland

Some time ago I promised to publish some long term macroeconomic comparatives for Ireland relative to other small open economies of Europe. Here they are (all data is courtesy of the IMF's Global Economic Outlook dataset with some forecasts adjusted to reflect Government own forecasts in Budget 2010):

First output gap as percent of potential GDP

There is really no doubting who's worse off in this picture. And notice how much more dramatic is our output gap volatility compared to, say, Austria - another small, but more stable economy, despite it having a massive exposure to high growth and high volatility Eastern and Central European countries.

Next, we have GDP per capita.

Several features of the chart are worth highlighting.

Obviously, Iceland is now on the path, per IMF to close the gap between themselves and us in terms of GDP per capita. Dynamics-wise, it is expected to do better relative to Ireland than it ever did in the period since the late 1990s through the bubble. Taking medicine on time and in full, obviously pays for Iceland. Back in 1999 Ireland moved onto a path of GDP per capita in excess of Iceland. In 2009 it moved on the path of GDP per capita converging with Iceland.

Who's doing better here? By the end of 2014, Iceland is expected by the IMF to fully recover from the crisis, reaching peak GDP per capita once again, after a shorter recession than the one enjoyed by Ireland. And Iceland will do so with faster growth in population than Ireland will (see later charts).

Under DofF dreamy assumptions, Ireland too will reach its pre-crisis peak by 2014, but it would have taken us a year longer to get there than Iceland. And this is under DofF assumptions.

Now, I also provide my own forecast - somewhat gloomier than that of the Government - which implies that i do not expect Ireland to reach the pre-crisis peak income per capita any time soon. And this dynamic will be paralleled by a slower growing population.

Also, do remember - our GDP is not a measure of our income (GNP is), while for Icelanders the two measures are more closely related.

Next inflation as measured by CPI:
Do tell me we are just fine with 5% deflation in the current cycle. Not really, folks. In order to get us back to price levels that imply competitiveness, we need a good 40% deflation if not more.

Unemployment - the one that we are being told is getting better now that 'the worst is already behind us' per official Government view:
Again, think Iceland and Greece. Greece is a good one in particular - their unemployment was high since the late 1980s. Ours was low since the mid 1990s and sub-zero since 2001. But, thanks to our 'head-in-the-sand' economic policies during the current crisis - we are now at the top of the league.

Demographics - some say this is our saving grace, the golden 'get-out-of-the-slump' card:
Nothing spectacular that I can spot here. And these are IMF projections that lag in incorporating what we, on the ground already know - the rapid depletion of our foreign workers' population and waves of young Irish people leaving the country.

Let's take a look at employment (as opposed to unemployment) as % of the total population. basically, the higher the number, the lower is the country dependency ratio (in other words, the greater is the number of people working than the number of people they support):
We were doing pretty well - just below Iceland and Switzerland. Post crisis, Iceland will retain its second best position, but we will slide below Lux. Again, this is in the environment where our population will be growing slower than that of Lux...

General Government Balance:
Well, yes - per Brian Lenihan we have taken the necessary steps... Did we? How is fooling who here? Iceland will be ahead of us with default and without a mountain of international bondholders' and depositors' liabilities on the shoulders of its people. We will both, destroy our public finances and our private households' finances as well. All for what? To make sure we do not upset banks bond holders? But wait - these figures do not reflect Nama and its cost. They do not reflect future bank recapitalisations. Were they to do so, our Government Balance would have fallen way beyond 16-18% mark.

But let us take a different look at the same figure:
Now, remember all the talk about Charlie McCreevy being a profligate spender as the Minister for Finance. Actually, not really. Over his tenure - longer than that of his successor, McCreevy presided over relatively mild deterioration in fiscal position. Primary balance under McCreevy in cumulative terms was close to break even. Under Minister Cowen things spun out of hand. Noticeably, Minister Lenihan is doing a much better job than his predecessor, although it is hard to say whether he is doing it because he actually believes in some sort of fiscal discipline or because he simply cannot borrow all the money he would like to borrow.

Current account balance:
For an economy that is staking its survival on exports (and we really do not have much of hope of doing otherwise), we are not looking all too strong in 2010-2014 projections by the IMF. Iceland, in contrast, is looking mighty alright relative to us, having undergone massive devaluation. Again, our deflation at home is simply not enough to compensate for the fact that we cannot devalue the grossly expensive euro.

Let me take you through more comparatives. Back to Government deficits. Now, recall there are two components to deficit - structural (due to chronic overspend) and cyclical (due to a recession).
Again, notice how Greece and Austria are on virtually identical path, although Greece is above Austria. This means that on average, the share of their overall deficit that is structural is relatively the same. If Greeks were to cut their structural deficit relative to its position today, their overall deficit will decline by a lower percentage than the same drop for Ireland. In Ireland's case, we have smaller cyclical deficit than the Greeks do, but greater structural deficits. Relative to Austrians, we are simply a drunken sailor hitting the first pub on the shore.

Take a closer look at the Irish data alone:
In the 1980s through late 1990s - much lower structural deficits than since 1998. Why? I guess Bertie really was a profligately spending socialist of the old variety.

Last chart: just to drive home the same point as before: Note the dramatic deterioration in structural balances under Mr Cowen - throughout his years as Minister for Finance, he was spending not only the money he had (shallower surpluses than his predecessor), but also the money he did not have (deeper structural deficits), leveraging lavishly future generations' wealth. Mr McCreevy, in contrast, really was spending what he had, with structural deficits starting to cause problems in his tenure only around 2002.
And one last point to make - notice how our structural deficit has caught up with its 5-year moving average line. This suggests that even in the Budget 2010 we still did not do enough to reverse longer term trend leading us deeper and deeper into permanent insolvency.

Paraphrasing Fianna Fáil's 2002 general election slogan: "A Little Done, More To Do"...