Ivor Callely
Question:68 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Finance the level of capital outflow from Ireland in the first quarter of 1995; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7048/95]
Written Answers. - Capital Outflow.
Official balance of payments estimates are prepared by the Central Statistics Office on a quarterly basis. However, as yet there are no figures from that office in respect of 1995. Banking statistics are as yet available only up to January of 1995. The figure for January showed an increase in the level of the official external reserves of nearly £300 million, which was primarily attributable to transfers from the EU.
In general terms, some net overall capital outflows are entirely normal in a country such as Ireland which has a strong current account surplus. These are of course balanced by inflows on the current account of the balance of payments. There are no indications that net capital outflows have been the direct cause of any particular difficulty in the first quarter of 1995.