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Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland
put down
Tiger's gone: Inventor of Celtic Tiger resigns
Banker who coined the phrase for Irish economic ‘miracle’ has worked for several powerhouse financial institutions.
THE MAN CREDITED with inventing the ‘Celtic Tiger’ phrase in 1994 has resigned from his position with Barclays Bank in the UK.
Kevin Gardiner was until recently working as chief investment officer for the European markets at the UK banking giant.
He is credited with inventing the term in a report for Morgan Stanley twenty years ago to describe the unprecedented growth the Irish economy was seeing at the time.
The name stuck, and became indelibly associated with the bouyant economic period that was sustained through the 90s and much of the 2000s.
Despite what is now acknowledged as a slowdown well in advance of the economic collapse of 2008, the Tiger tag was still applied to the Irish economy before it went south six years ago.
After leaving Morgan Stanley, Gardiner worked with HSBC as Global Head of Equity Strategy, as well as several other investment banks and at the Bank of England.
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