of both the performance and the outlook for the irish economy. the first of these is the recent very large revisions to the irish national accounts, in particular the large upward revisions to the value of gdp and gnp in 2015. second, is the fact that the outcome of the uk referendum on membership of the european union has introduced significant risk and uncertainty to the outlook for the irish economy. 1 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches angus deaton the winner of the 2015 nobel prize in economics recently noted that “ headline statistics often seem simple but typically have many moving parts …, we must always work from multiple sources, and look deep into the cogs and wheels ”. 2 i think that we can all agree that the workings of the clock in the case of irish macroeconomic and financial headline statistics are becoming more and more complicated. this was most recently observed in the national accounts data which showed a 26 per cent increase in gdp. although compiled in full accordance with international manuals, these data revisions make it difficult for policy makers and analysts, both domestically and internationally to interpret. rather than giving an accurate picture of the actual level of domestic economic activity, the numbers reflect the statistical ’ on - shoring ’ associated with a level shift in the size of the irish capital stock. this has arisen from corporate restructurings and balance sheet reclassifications in the multinational sector and also growth in aircraft leasing activity. as a result, national accounts data now include a very significant amount of activity carried out elsewhere, but formally and correctly recorded as part of irish gdp and gnp. to get a more accurate measure of the level of activity in the domestic economy it is necessary to look beyond the headline gdp and gnp figures to other more reliable spending and activity indicators. these suggest that, while not growing at a rate of 26 per cent, economic activity continues to expand at a reasonably healthy pace. in particular, consumer spending has recovered strongly, supported by solid gains in employment and rising earnings. underlying domestic demand – that is, the sum of personal consumer spending, net government spending on goods and services and investment excluding in aircraft and intangible assets, grew by close to 5 per cent in 2015. together with employment growth of 2. 5 per cent and wage increases of a similar magnitude, this points to growth in domestic activity broadly in the region of 5 per cent. this rate of expansion is far removed from the measured increase in gdp of over 26 per cent last year, but is over twice the average rate

jean - claude trichet : the role of research in central banks and at the ecb speech by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, at the ceremony for the award of the german bernacer prize, madrid, 21 may 2007. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is a privilege and a pleasure for me to award today the 2006 german bernacer prize to helene rey, professor of economics and international affairs at princeton university, for her outstanding research on financial globalization, exchange rates and capital markets. i am particularly pleased to be here for two reasons : the 2006 bernacer prize selection committee is composed of eminent economists that have global reputation and was chaired by lucas papademos, vice - president of the european central bank ; and i had myself the honour of being in touch with professor rey as soon as 1998 when she led a research granted from the “ fondation banque de france ” i like to think that the eurosystem has to some extent contributed to the brilliant career of professor rey and to her challenging research agenda. first in 1998 and then in 2003 and 2004, she received grants from the “ fondation banque de france ”. more recently, in 2005, she was granted a lamfalussy fellowship by the research network on capital markets and financial integration in europe, which is jointly managed by the european central bank and the center for financial studies at the goethe university of frankfurt. financial support for young and bright european economists is one among several ways in which the ecb and the national central banks of the euro area contribute to the enhancement of research in monetary and financial economics. this leads me to a few remarks on the role of and scope for research at the ecb and more generally in central banks. the main goal of economic research at the ecb is to provide a strong conceptual and empirical basis for policy - making. more specifically, very important aims are to increase knowledge of the functioning of the euro area economy and to provide high - quality models, tools and analyses that are relevant for the conduct of monetary policy and the fulfilment of the other tasks and functions of the ecb. the general purpose and specific objectives of research in central banks are seldom questioned. a debated issue, however, is whether central banks should be producers or simply consumers of research. should central banks allocate resources to costly in - house research, rather than buying research output from universities and other research institutions? there are at least four reasons why