The International Monetary Fund has conceded it could have done better in predicting Ireland’s property and banking crash that led to in Sunday’s announcement of a €85bn bail-out by the fund and Ireland’s European partners. Ajai Chopra, deputy director of the IMF’s European department, who leads the mission to Ireland, said in an interview with the Financial Times: “There is no question that we – and other observers – could have done better.“…

But Mr Chopra, who led the mission to South Korea in 1997, says the fund sees itself as “a learning institution”.