Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 16 June 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Covid-19: Impact on the Fiscal Position

Photo of Mary ButlerMary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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According to the Central Bank, people have saved significant amounts in recent months.

Now as the economy reopens and people return to traditional shopping, we hope, do the witnesses believe this relative opening of the spending floodgates could drive inflation as supply struggles to cope? Could the scarcity of stock drive up prices? I refer, for example, to the cycle industry. Cycling has never been more popular and great numbers of people are purchasing bikes. We have seen in recent media reports that it takes about three months to have a bike manufactured and brought to Ireland. Might we see an increase in inflation as a result of this?