Irish Central Bank Hid Housing Crash Forecast

Most central banks didn't know a housing crisis was coming, but even if they did, would they tell you?

Ireland's Central Bank buried sensational data forecasting a crash in the property market months before the housing market began to crumble in early 2007, according to the Irish newspaper, The Independent.

Last week's report into the banking crisis by Ireland's central bank head Professor Patrick Honohan revealed that minutes from the bank's financial stability group had shown that predictions of a crash in the market were deliberately left out of a crucial report in 2006.

"It was decided in 2006 to exclude from the main text of the report data and references to a likely 15 per cent house price overvaluation that was contained in a themed research paper," according to Prof Honohan's report.