IRISH CONSUMERS are still paying almost 20 per cent more than the European average for goods and services, despite a drop in inflation, according to the latest Central Statistics Office figures.
The public balance deficit, the difference between Government borrowing and lending, remained the highest of any EU member state in 2010. Government debt was at just over 96 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), up from 25 per cent of GDP in 2007, the office said.
Consumer prices fell in 2010 and the only other country where prices fell in 2010 was Latvia, but they remained high by EU standards. Ireland was the fifth most expensive EU state in 2010, after Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden, with prices 18 per cent above the EU average.
This represented a considerable improvement on 2009 when Irish prices were 26 per cent above the EU average and second only to Denmark, according to the Measuring Ireland's Progress 2010report, published yesterday.
The report does not give details of which goods and services Irish consumers are paying a higher price for than EU counterparts.
The State has remained in recession for a third year, with a public balance deficit of 32.4 per cent of GDP – the largest by far of any EU state. Government debt rose to 96.2 per cent of GDP in 2010, the fourth highest debt/GDP ratio in the EU, having been 25 per cent just three years before.
Despite this, Ireland still had the joint third highest GDP per capita in the EU, at 25 per cent above the EU average.
The continuing strength of GDP is driven by strong profitability among foreign companies located in Ireland. Under another output measure – gross national product (GNP), which excludes foreign firms’ profits – Ireland lags behind the European leaders at 11th place.
The value of goods and services produced in Ireland remains among the EU’s highest, despite the recession. The State’s GDP was the joint third highest per capita in Europe in 2010, on a par with Denmark and only behind Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The employment rate in Ireland, at 58.9 per cent, was below the EU average, and the rate of unemployment was the sixth highest in the EU.
In population terms the State had the highest proportion of young people in the bloc, and the lowest proportion of old people. Ireland has the lowest divorce rate and the highest fertility rate in the EU, and its population is increasing at a higher rate than in any other EU country.
Ireland’s divorce rate was 0.7 divorces per 1,000 population, the figures dating from 2009 show, followed by Italy at 0.9 and Slovenia at 1.1. The highest rate of divorce was in Belgium, with 3 divorces per 1,000 population.
On education, average class sizes at primary level were the second highest in the EU in 2010, though the early school-leaver rate is better than the EU average. The proportion of the population aged 25-34 that has completed third-level education is the third highest in the EU.
The number of homes built in 2010 was 14,600, back to the level of 1970, and down from a peak of almost 90,000 in 2006.
Public expenditure on health care in Ireland averaged €3,234 per person in 2009, an increase of more than half on the level in 2000, when health expenditure stood at €2,082.
Crime statistics feature in the report as a comparison between Irish rates from 2005 and 2009, rather than Irish versus European rates. The number of kidnappings and related offences nearly doubled over the four-year period, rising from 74 to 146. There were notable increases in controlled drugs offences, up by nearly two-thirds from 13,322 to 21,983.
