Brian Keegan: We’ve passed our economics exams, but the budget is something else

It feels as if the country has just done some kind of economic Leaving Cert, with end of term reports published last week. First there was the Summer Economic Statement, then the Central Bank quarterly update, and finally on Thursday a good conduct report from the International Monetary Fund. Subject to the usual terms, conditions and hedging that we tend to find in economic assessments, the portrait which all three of these reports painted of ...