Brussels, 05/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - In Ireland, the “situation is hugely difficult, indeed complicated,” according to Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker. Faced with a fall in GDP of the order of 9% in 2009 and the explosion of its public deficit (12% this year and 15.6% in 2010, the Commission predicts), Ireland has been told to get back below the threshold of 3% of GDP by 2013. To try to do this, Dublin recently brought forward budgetary austerity measures. The decisions taken were “courageous” to try to put the country back on the path to budgetary consolidation, and “we welcome the spirit of national consensus” prevailing in Ireland, Juncker said after the Eurogroup meeting on Monday 4 May. Asked for his view on the Irish situation, previously an example of economic success within the EU, now in severe difficulty because of the crisis, Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, too, praised the reaction of the Irish authorities, while ,at the same time, pointing to a number of past errors. “From my point of view, the most important lesson is that macro-economic imbalances beyond the fiscal position should be taken into account seriously,” he said. Account must be taken of all imbalances which, for Ireland were “linked, in particular, with the excessive growth of the housing sector”. This development was “one of the most important signals that some imbalances were growing in the Irish economy and this would have required in due time some policies to restrain excessive growth of credit and in the housing sector that was not sustainable”. (A.B./transl.rt)