Trump economics will give boost to Ireland, says aide
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s promise to ‘make America great again’ can translate into even higher growth rates in Ireland because the two economies move in step, the top economics adviser to the White House has claimed. Central Statistics Office (CSO) data yesterday showed the Irish economy continues to outperform its European peers, in significant part thanks to close US ties. But there are fears Mr Trump’s anti-trade agenda will strain those ties – particularly after the US imposed tariffs on some EU exports. Yesterday Kevin Hassett, chair of President Trump’s economic advisers, said the Irish economy is more responsive to the US than any other economy it had measured. He said that according to official estimates here and in the US, Irish gross domestic product (GDP) increases 1.5pc for every 1pc of growth in the US. This index is known as the ‘Beta’ – a measure of how responsive one economy is to another. “The Beta for Ireland is the highest one we’ve estimated... if you accept that we’ve made the US economy grow at 3pc instead of 2pc, then that means that GDP in Ireland – if you get a normal effect – will be 10pc-15pc higher a decade from now than it would otherwise be.” However, the transmission of US growth to Ireland may be negatively affected, if the links between the countries are weakened by trade barriers or the shift towards protectionism in the US. As he defended the White House economic agenda at an event for business leaders hosted by the US Embassy in Dublin yesterday, Mr Hassett said the US tax reform this year was partly inspired by Ireland’s low corporate tax regime. The US slashed corporation tax from 35pc to 21pc. “I think we wouldn’t have a tax bill without you guys because we could point to how successful you were, and now that we have a much more visible corporate tax what’s going to happen is the advantage of going to Ireland with future activity is smaller. “It’s not Ireland’s fault that the tax law in the US was written by somebody who was taking acid... it just made no sense whatsoever what they were doing.” The Irish economy grew around six times faster than the European average in the three months of April, May and June and is on course to come close to matching last year’s 7.2pc expansion. Growth here was driven by higher technology exports in particular. Average growth in the EU was 0.4pc.