Wednesday, 8 April 2009

You know a country is in trouble when.....

....its ministry of finance produces a statement like this....

An Exchequer deficit of €3,721 million was recorded in the first quarter of 2009 compared to a deficit of €354 million in the same period last year. Tax revenue was down year-on-year by €2.6 billion or 23%. Total net voted expenditure was just over €680 million or 6% above expenditure levels for the same period of last year.

A ten-fold increase in the fiscal deficit; tax revenues are down almost a quarter; while expenditures are up 6 percent.

The country? Ireland.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Which is why there was a supplementary budget in Ireland yesterday.

Mick said...

wonder if Sinn Fein are still so keen on a united Ireland.

K T Cat said...

As I heard it, Ireland was at least trying to cut expenses and wasn't going on a financial bender like we are in the States.

Sebastian Weetabix said...

Are Sinn Fein still keen? You bet. Underneath the Green they're a bunch of revolutionary marxists who don't believe in capitalist illusions like money.

dearieme said...

Couldn't they cure it by confiscating the wealth of that old crook Haughey?

Unknown said...

Great suggestion dearieme! :-)

Anonymous said...

Oh, well - the Irish can drink and have a good crack about it. I would worry about the English: they always get all nasty and fascist when things don't work out for them.