IMF Approves An Additional €0.89 Billion Disbursement To Ireland

Contact Information

Welcome To Newsroom Magazine

Thanks To You We're Growing Faster Than Ever Before

Chances are you've noticed that Newsroom Magazine is a very different publication.

We care about journalism -- and we're well aware many other organizations do it far better than we.

Our editorial standards, rules of custody, and skeptical editing for everything we produce, disseminate or expose to public viewing reflects a seriousness of purpose.

Six years after our founding, Newsroom Magazine continues to evolve the online publishing and preservation model we pioneered.

There is good news to share: Newsroom Magazine is is thriving.

And some less good news: Our limited resources, both journalistically and financially, are limiting our expansion of content.

Online News Preservation

In the six years since its founding, Newsroom Magazine has extended the field of news publishing into previously uncharted areas.

We take a long range view of news -- one that considers both timeliness and historical merit.

What we do, and how we do it, was not possible in the print media era -- for our content is both timely and timeless in the sense that we share the power of immediacy with all online media plus the perseverance of an encyclopedia.

Newsroom Magazine's publishing model goes beyond immediacy -- for unlike the newspaper era -- what we publish is permanently preserved. And tagged, indexed, and constantly updated by automated sitemap sharing with Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, Baidu, Sogou, Ewatch, Alexa, Facebook, and others at home and far away.

All of our content, is meant to be preserved. Thanks to the capture and storage of our content at Google, including all updates and changes, and full collection archiving by the U.S. Internet Archives, everything we say, write, opine -- whether wise, foolish, or inconsequential-- is preserved.

Newsroom Magazine content remains forever online, searchable and accessible 24 hours a day worldwide.

What's Hot Is Rarely What Matters

What we publish today is rarely as timely as the more traditional publications and online newspapers. What we choose to publish, sometimes days or months after a story first breaks, or on a subject neglected by most commercial media, is chosen to reflect one aspect of an ongoing reality for long term preservation.

From a handful of English-only readers when we published our first article -- the 1958 Edward R. Murrow speech before the Radio Television Directors Association in Chicago -- we have grown and wizened about our responsibilities to our readers and our own limitations and shortfalls.

Our most read article so far this year, The Adventures Of Bernie In Wonderland, was published November 23rd, 2009. The article consists of the unexpurgated SEC interview of Harry Markopolos in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi swindle case. It is not very interesting reading and it is very long -- but we published it in the belief that what it revealed was important and unlikely to remain online in its original format.

Newsroom Magazine's Storehouse Grows Every Day

The number of publications who devote themselves to publishing credible, responsible and probative content for posterity has dwindled.

Today Newsroom Magazine publishes a storehouse of credible, probative and relevant content -- well over 5000 articles including commentaries, essays, definitions, photographs, stories, reviews, discussions, tutorials, and logical explanations.

Our readership is nearly three times was it was only last year. Few might come to our content for entertainment -- for our purpose is otherwise.

If You Publish, They Will Come

We are read on Capitol Hill, along K Street, and in the halls of government inside the beltway and around the world.

We are read daily on college campuses at home and abroad. We're visited from military ships at sea. We serve law-firms, major corporations, Wall Street the UK Parliament, state governments and cities with credible useful information.

Some of the world's most prestigious news organizations use Newsroom Magazine for fact-checking.

Government Information Unfiltered, Sometimes Imperfect

The amount of official news proffered each day by government, whether at home or abroad, is accelerating. Some of it newsworthy, most of it not.

Our job is to thoughtfully choose what's worthy of the attention of our readers.

About 1% of government issued news we receive each day qualifies as newsworthy. Only the most relevant, or reflective of government at its best, or at its worst, or evidence of overreach, or ineptitude makes it newsworthy.

We leave the issue of deciding which if any of these qualifications applies to what we publish up to the reader.

Formatted For People On The Go, Or On The Hunt

All of our government news content includes above the headline call out meant to convey the principal facts, action or information for those with little time to read a long document.

Our job is to carefully and skeptically choose relevant governmental content for our readers -- and to include the unexpurgated original source material, whose chain of custody we control.

Online Editorial Standards, Ethics And Purpose

Our commitment to time-honored journalistic standards and a clear statement about the ethics to which we agree to be held today and tomorrow, Newsroom Magazine began publication when the Internet was young -- 2006.

Our prime mission then, as now, is to publish non political ideas, definitions, essays and editorials.

To speak to the state of this honorable calling.

And to inform the public about those things, events and ideas that matter most to us all.

Today, tomorrow, forever.

Editorial Standards & Policies

W. Mark Miller Indicted In Provident Royalties Oil And Gas Scheme		Browse All Content		FBI Charges Lawyers And Promoters In Major Immigration Fraud Investigation
Previous In Section		Browse International Monetary Fund Section		Next In Section

International » International Monetary Fund »

IMF Approves An Additional €0.89 Billion Disbursement To Ireland

Reliable Sources

Published: Tuesday December 18, 2012 8:00 am EDT

Article Length: 930 Words

Reading Time: 4 Minutes

Ireland’s steadfast policy implementation has continued even as growth has slowed in 2012. The 2012 outturn should be comfortably within the 8.6 percent deficit target despite health overruns and higher social welfare spending owing to high unemployment. The budget for 2013 was recently submitted to parliament, setting out a combination of durable spending and revenue measures of over 2 percent of GDP to reduce the deficit to 7.5 percent of GDP.

Washington

IMF

IMF Completes Eighth Review Under The Extended Fund Facility With Ireland And Approves €0.89 Billion Disbursement

December 17, 2012

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the eighth review of Ireland’s performance under an economic program supported by a three-year, SDR 19.4658 billion (about €22.79 billion or about US$29.99 billion) arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), or the equivalent of about 1,548 percent of Ireland’s IMF quota. The completion of the review enables the disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 0.758 billion (about €0.89 billion or about US$1.17 billion), bringing total disbursements under the EFF to SDR 16.5434 billion (about €19.37 billion or about US$25.49 billion).

The arrangement for Ireland, which was approved on December 16, 2010 (see Press Release No. 10/496), is part of a financing package amounting to €85 billion (about US$111.9 billion), also supported by the European Financial Stabilization Mechanism and European Financial Stability Facility, bilateral loans from Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, and Ireland’s own contributions.

Ireland’s steadfast policy implementation has continued even as growth has slowed in 2012. The 2012 outturn should be comfortably within the 8.6 percent deficit target despite health overruns and higher social welfare spending owing to high unemployment. The budget for 2013 was recently submitted to parliament, setting out a combination of durable spending and revenue measures of over 2 percent of GDP to reduce the deficit to 7.5 percent of GDP.

The Irish authorities are also advancing reforms to help revive growth. In the financial sector, they are supervising banks’ efforts to reduce loans in arrears and are adopting insolvency reforms for highly indebted households and SMEs. To rebuild bank profitability they are preparing for the possibility of phasing out the guarantee scheme and are monitoring reductions in banks’ operational costs. To avoid high unemployment becoming more structural, the authorities are intensifying engagement with unemployed persons, reforming further education, and revamping housing supports.

Market conditions for Irish sovereign debt are much improved following the June 29, 2012 announcement that the Eurogroup is examining the situation of the Irish financial sector with a view to further improving the sustainability of Ireland’s well-performing program, and also of Outright Monetary Transactions by the ECB. Together with Ireland’s strong policy implementation, these developments have enabled Irish sovereign yields to decline notably in 2012 and allowed Ireland to access significant market funding in the second half of the year.

Looking ahead, however, a more gradual economic recovery is projected, with growth of 1.1 percent in 2013 and 2.2 percent in 2014, with public debt expected to peak at 122 percent of GDP in 2013. This baseline outlook is subject to significant risks from any further weakening of growth in Ireland’s trading partners, while the gradual revival of domestic demand could be impeded by high private debts, drag from fiscal consolidation, and banks still limited ability to lend. If growth were to remain low in coming years, public debt could continue to rise, in part reflecting the potential for renewed bank capital needs to emerge.

Following the Executive Board’s discussion, Mr. David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, said:

“The program with Ireland has now been in place for two years and the Irish authorities have consistently maintained strong policy implementation. All program targets have been met and a range of fiscal, financial, and structural reforms are in train. Aided by the commitments of European partners, Irish bond yields have declined, allowing Ireland to begin its return to market financing.

“The authorities have demonstrated their commitment to put Ireland’s fiscal position on a sound footing, with the 2012 deficit target expected to be met even through growth has been low. The Medium-Term Fiscal Statement set out a phased path for considerable further fiscal consolidation to bring the budget deficit below 3 percent by 2015. The 2013 budget provides a key step along that path, and full implementation is needed. Nonetheless, if next year’s growth were to disappoint, any additional fiscal consolidation should be deferred to 2015 to protect the recovery.

“Vigorous implementation of financial sector reforms is needed to revive sound bank lending in support of economic growth. Key steps forward include arresting the deterioration of banks’ asset quality, reducing their operating costs, and lowering funding costs through orderly withdrawal of guarantees. The personal insolvency reform being adopted should facilitate out-of-court resolution of household debt distress, especially if complemented by a well functioning repossession process to help maintain debt service discipline and underpin banks’ willingness to lend.

“Continued strong Irish policy implementation is essential for the program’s success. Ireland’s market access would also be greatly enhanced by forceful delivery of European pledges to improve program sustainability, especially by breaking the vicious circle between the Irish sovereign and the banks. By supporting medium term growth and debt reduction prospects, this would help avoid prolonged reliance on official financing.”

Source: International Monetary Fund