Winner of 'first country to enter recession' award revealed.

[freedomlover]

The winner of the award for the ''first country to enter recession' has just been announced.

Ireland had been hotly tipped to win this prestigious award by, among others, David McWilliams, Morgan Kelly and Alan Ahearne.

Alas, in a cruel twist of fate, Ireland's hopes were dashed earlier this week when official CSO stats showed that Ireland had yet again failed to achieve two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Instead, arch-rival Denmark has nipped in at the last minute to claim the award. Denmark achieved what Ireland couldn't and has followed up its 0.2% negative growth in Q4 2007 with a stunning 0.6% negative growth in Q1 2008. So, over the two quarters combined, Denmark managed 0.8% negative growth while Ireland could only manage 0.2% positive growth (0.7% negative in Q4 2007 and 0.9% positive in Q1 2008).

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detay ... &bolum=105

[JCSkinner]

And yet they're the happiest sons of beeyatches on Earth. Go figure.

[Ard-Taoiseach]

The comparison is even more favourable to us when you consider that Denmark's economy grew by only 3.3% last year, compared to our 6% performance. Statistics Denmark show this here.

[blinding]

damn it i hate losing

[theyshootPDsdontthey]

What's their unemployment rate? 8 or 8 per cent. We're probably still the ency of Europe with our 5.7% rate.
Nah it's a big 1.7%
I'd say your average Dane isn't sweating about the shoebox apartment etc he bought in the back end of nowhere to live in.
A recession isn't worrying him either. But sure we're the envy of Europe.
Danish May Unemployment Rate 1.7%; Surprises Again

DATA SNAPanish May Unemployment Rate 1.7%; Surprises Again
By Joel Sherwood OF DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Denmark's unemployment rate continues to fall and catch off-guard economists who say the rate just can't go any lower, data from Statistics Denmark showed Thursday.

The country's May seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 1.7% in May from 1.8% in April.

Consensus from a Dow Jones Newswires poll of five economists was that the rate in May would remain unchanged at its lowest level since the early 1970s.

The rate in April fell from March's 1.9%, February's 2.0% and January's 2.1%, surprising market-watchers each time.

"It keeps surprising us," said Danske Bank chief economist Steen Bocian.

"I guess we should get used to this," he said. However, he said there are clear signs of slowing economic activity.

He said it may be that Denmark's labor market is the last indicator to start showing signs of economic slackening.

Statistics Denmark said the May 1.7% unemployment rate is likely the lowest since 1974.

There were no seasonally adjusted figures taken that year, it said, but the full-year rate if measured in the same way as the statistics agency currently measures was 1.5%.

http://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-news ... 6d14ad15d7

[moghroth]

The winner of the award for the ''first country to enter recession' has just been announced.

Ireland had been hotly tipped to win this prestigious award by, among others, David McWilliams, Morgan Kelly and Alan Ahearne.

Alas, in a cruel twist of fate, Ireland's hopes were dashed earlier this week when official CSO stats showed that Ireland had yet again failed to achieve two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Instead, arch-rival Denmark has nipped in at the last minute to claim the award. Denmark achieved what Ireland couldn't and has followed up its 0.2% negative growth in Q4 2007 with a stunning 0.6% negative growth in Q1 2008. So, over the two quarters combined, Denmark managed 0.8% negative growth while Ireland could only manage 0.2% positive growth (0.7% negative in Q4 2007 and 0.9% positive in Q1 2008).

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detay ... &bolum=105

Another one that we lost is the worlds happiest country, again the Danes won.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healt...080701?sp=true
So is there an inverse relationship between economic performance and societal happiness?

[JCSkinner]

The winner of the award for the ''first country to enter recession' has just been announced.

Ireland had been hotly tipped to win this prestigious award by, among others, David McWilliams, Morgan Kelly and Alan Ahearne.

Alas, in a cruel twist of fate, Ireland's hopes were dashed earlier this week when official CSO stats showed that Ireland had yet again failed to achieve two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Instead, arch-rival Denmark has nipped in at the last minute to claim the award. Denmark achieved what Ireland couldn't and has followed up its 0.2% negative growth in Q4 2007 with a stunning 0.6% negative growth in Q1 2008. So, over the two quarters combined, Denmark managed 0.8% negative growth while Ireland could only manage 0.2% positive growth (0.7% negative in Q4 2007 and 0.9% positive in Q1 2008).

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detay ... &bolum=105

Another one that we lost is the worlds happiest country, again the Danes won.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healt...080701?sp=true
So is there an inverse relationship between economic performance and societal happiness?

I think I already made that point, but I'm glad someone else picked up on it. Clearly whatever we're measuring here is not the be all and end all as far as human fulfillment is concerned.

[kerrynorth]

The winner of the award for the ''first country to enter recession' has just been announced.

Ireland had been hotly tipped to win this prestigious award by, among others, David McWilliams, Morgan Kelly and Alan Ahearne.

Alas, in a cruel twist of fate, Ireland's hopes were dashed earlier this week when official CSO stats showed that Ireland had yet again failed to achieve two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Instead, arch-rival Denmark has nipped in at the last minute to claim the award. Denmark achieved what Ireland couldn't and has followed up its 0.2% negative growth in Q4 2007 with a stunning 0.6% negative growth in Q1 2008. So, over the two quarters combined, Denmark managed 0.8% negative growth while Ireland could only manage 0.2% positive growth (0.7% negative in Q4 2007 and 0.9% positive in Q1 2008).

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detay ... &bolum=105

I see you are still spinning out those lies out FL.
The Danish figures are GDP yet you quote GNP for Ireland to suit your argument. Apples and oranges FL.
Ireland's GDP also contracted for 2 quarters in a row and at a much higher level -1.5% in q1 and I think a revised -0.7% in q4 07. So a combined -2.2% for Ireland compared to -0.8% for Denmark.

Spin that FL.