Archive for March 2020

The International Monetary Fund has announced that it’s to make $50bn in emergency financing available for low income and emerging market countries to counter the impact of the corona virus outbreak. Its Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, said the outbreak is a ‘global problem calling for a global response.’ The IMF expects the global supply of…

A cross bank co-ordination group is working on an industry wide plan to best manage the continued provision of banking services in the event of an escalation of the coronavirus nationally or an outbreak of the virus in a particular area of the country. The group, which is chaired by Banking & Payments Federation Ireland,…

Retail sales volumes increased by 3.7% on an annual basis in January, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show.  But retail sales were down 3.4% on a monthly basis following strong sales in December that last year included the “Black Friday” deals period. The CSO said that when volatile car sales are excluded, the…

Factory activity grew for a second month in a row in February on strong output and orders, a survey showed today. But concerns about coronavirus and a domestic political stalemate tempered expectations for future growth.  A six-year expansion in manufacturing came to an end in June as a slowdown in global trade and uncertainty over…

European shares steadied in opening trade this morning after their worst weekly showing since the 2008 financial crisis. Shares were higher on rising hopes that major central banks will step in to counter the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on global growth.  The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.8% after a 12% slump last week,…