MEANWHILE, the Economist magazine has made a lot of its McDonalds index, comparing the price of hamburgers across the world as a way of looking at the real level of prices. But The Margin can reveal that the chief executive of the NTMA, Michael Somers has come up with his own economic indicator: the price of ice cream cones.

At this week's presentation of the agency's annual report, Mr Somers digressed momentarily to discuss German inflation. He pointed out that Germany was now an expensive county. He based his assessment on the price of an ice cream cone bought on a recent trip to the land of the mighty deutschmark which cost him the equivalent of £1. "And that was without a piece of chocolate in it or anything," he added. This, he said, compared to the 50p he paid for cone in Ireland recently.

This in turn elicited the cryptic response "You bought cheap," from the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn who was at the presentation. Our Minister is clearly a connoisseur of the "99".