{"id":357870,"date":"2026-03-21T13:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T13:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/357870\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T13:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T13:55:14","slug":"irish-economy-in-better-position-than-european-peers-on-iran-war-risk-says-central-bank-boss-gabriel-makhlouf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/357870\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish economy in better position than European peers on Iran war risk, says Central Bank boss Gabriel Makhlouf"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe main risks for Ireland actually are similar to the rest of Europe. It\u2019s the impact on growth, the impact on inflation,\u201d Mr Makhlouf said in an interview with Bloomberg. But Ireland is in a \u201cbetter position than a number of other countries\u201d thanks to its growth rate and a financial system that weathered the shocks of the Ukraine war and Covid pandemic, he added.<\/p>\n

Conflict in the Middle East adds to risks already present in Ireland\u2019s small, open economy, which relies heavily on corporation taxes from a small number of US multinationals such as Apple Inc and Eli Lilly and Co.<\/p>\n

The war in Iran has not fundamentally changed my views of the Irish economy<\/p>\n

That revenue has contributed to Ireland having one of the few budget surpluses in Europe and helped the economy to grow, but leaves it exposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe war in Iran has not fundamentally changed my views of the Irish economy,\u201d Mr Makhlouf said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I would expect some small changes which will be consistent with what\u2019s been happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

He previously forecast modified domestic demand (MDD) to grow 3pc in 2026, citing multinational investment, but he expects a small change in the regulator\u2019s upcoming forecast due to the recent shock.<\/p>\n

MDD is the most accurate measure of the economy as it tries to strip out multinational sector activity. The governor, who also has a seat on the interest rate-setting panel of the European Central Bank (ECB), has repeatedly warned the government against spending measures that would fuel inflation.<\/p>\n

\"ECB<\/p>\n

ECB president Christine Lagarde. Photo: Bloomberg <\/p>\n

ECB president Christine Lagarde urged European governments to exercise fiscal restraint when helping citizens handle the soar in energy prices, as Italy approved a temporary cut to excise taxes on fuel this week and Germany considers a windfall levy on oil companies.<\/p>\n

Policymakers in Ireland should ensure any potential fiscal supports fit in the overall fiscal envelope and leaving it unchanged, Mr Makhlouf added, and find ways to become more energy independent, echoing earlier remarks by Finance Minister Simon Harris.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf one thing we\u2019ve learn from this latest crisis is, it just underlines the need to reduce our \u2013 never mind doing it for climate change reasons \u2013 reliance on fossil fuels,\u201d Mr Makhlouf said. \u201cIn Ireland, we\u2019re blessed with the fact that we have lots of wind.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe main risks for Ireland actually are similar to the rest of Europe. It\u2019s the impact on growth,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[971,72,20927,943,2606,113,28228,61,1095,11829,60],"class_list":["post-357870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-bloomberg","tag-business","tag-central-bank-of-ireland","tag-cost-of-living","tag-ecb","tag-economy","tag-gabriel-makhlouf","tag-ie","tag-inflation","tag-iran","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}