On 5th of October, Joan Burton, T.D., posted the following:
Today’s confirmation that the European Central Bank is to raise interest rates by a further quarter of a percent to 3.25% will hit many hardworking Irish families who are seeking to buy their own homes hardest. On top of the spiralling national inflation rate that currently stands at 4.5% – well ahead of the European average – that is having a dramatic effect on the price of everyday goods, the ECB increase will impact heavily on all mortgage-holders, especially those who have only recently borrowed large sums. Indeed, this rise is the fifth such increase in less than 12 months. Rather than opt to go for a couple of large increases over the last year, the ECB have opted to introduce incremental rises on a bimonthly basis in order to avoid a major shock to consumer confidence…. (source: archives of Irishblogs.ie)
Now, you may wonder why I didn’t just put in the link to her blog post. Well, it may be because my boyfriend tried to post a comment about the inherant contradiction of complaining about a rise in interest rates and increases in inflation in the same breath. An introductory course in macro-economics will teach you that interest rate increases are made specificaly to combat inflation. This really ought to be understood by a politician who is a chartered accountant and has a degree in comerce. The comment was never posted on her site but as you can see the paragraph complaining about the inflation rate was removed. I just thought this type of revision shouldn’t be allowed to go unnoticed.
