THE EXECUTIVE BOARD of the IMF has said that Ireland has completed the eleventh review under the bailout and has approved a disbursement of €770 million.

The review brings to €21.43 billion the amount given to Ireland under the bailout scheme, from a pledged €22.09 billion.

The IMF will conduct one more review before Ireland can exit the bailout in December, though they did sound a warning over Ireland’s lack of economic growth.

The Irish economy grew 0.4 per cent in the second quarter but  contracted 1.2 per cent year-on-year.
At the same time, employment grew 1.8 per cent year-on-year and, the IMF says, “recent indicators suggest a growth pick up in the second half of 2013″.

Fiscal results for the first eight months are in line with the Budget 2013.

Excluding one-off bondholder payments, the fiscal deficit expected to be about 6.8 percent of GDP this year.

The IMF says that it is heartened to see Irish banks “gradually returning to profitability”, though the level of non-performing loans (26.5 per cent) are signalled as a negative.

Read: IMF want Ireland to ‘continue track record’ of budget cuts

Read: OECD: Irish economy recovering but government must stick to targets