Exports 'boosted by productivity'

Rory O'Farrell: An interesting article appeared in the Irish Times that I think was missed by a lot of people.

Dan McLaughlin of Bank of Ireland said

"It is true that Irish hourly earnings in manufacturing have risen by 69 per cent over the past decade, against a 39 per cent rise in our main trading partners, but Irish productivity has also outpaced the competition, with the result that Irish unit labour costs in manufacturing have fallen 14 per cent relative to our trading partners over the past decade, according to Central Bank data."

Different versions of the article appeared in the breaking news section and the finance section.

This is more evidence that the government got its diagnosis wrong, and is administering medicine for the wrong condition.

Posted in: Economics

Tagged with: Competitiveness

Dr Rory O'Farrell     @r_o_farrell

Rory O'Farrell is an economist lecturing in TU Dublin. He previously worked for the OECD and for NERI.