In a press release, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it had completed the eighth review of Ireland’s performance under an economic program supported by a three-year, SDR 19.4658 billion (about €22.79 billion or about US$29.99 billion) arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), or the equivalent of about 1,548 percent of Ireland’s IMF quota. The completion of the review enables the disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 0.758 billion (about €0.89 billion or about US$1.17 billion), bringing total disbursements under the EFF to SDR 16.5434 billion (about €19.37 billion or about US$25.49 billion). The arrangement for Ireland, which was approved on December 16, 2010, is part of a financing package amounting to €85 billion (about US$111.9 billion), also supported by the European Financial Stabilization Mechanism and European Financial Stability Facility, bilateral loans from Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, and Ireland’s own contributions.

The Irish authorities are advancing reforms to help revive growth. In the financial sector, they are supervising banks’ efforts to reduce loans in arrears and are adopting insolvency reforms for highly indebted households and SMEs. To rebuild bank profitability they are preparing for the possibility of phasing out the guarantee scheme and are monitoring reductions in banks’ operational costs. To avoid high unemployment becoming more structural, the authorities are intensifying engagement with unemployed persons, reforming further education, and revamping housing supports. Market conditions for Irish sovereign debt are much improved following the 29 June 2012 announcement that the Eurogroup is examining the situation of the Irish financial sector with a view to further improving the sustainability of Ireland’s well-performing program, and also of Outright Monetary Transactions by the ECB. Together with Ireland’s strong policy implementation, these developments have enabled Irish sovereign yields to decline notably in 2012 and allowed Ireland to access significant market funding in the second half of the year.