Archive for February 2023

The Minister for Finance has said he expects inflation to fall “much more rapidly than previously assumed.” Speaking ahead of a speech to the Irish Tax Institute in Dublin, Minister Michael McGrath said the Department of Finance now believes inflation will average between 4% and 5% this year, with the annual rate falling to 4%…

Gas generated 42% of the country’s electricity demand in January, new figures show today Gas generated 42% of the country’s electricity demand in January, new figures show today The country’s gas demand fell by 8% in January compared to December due to milder than usual weather during the month. New figures from Gas Networks Ireland…

Employers’ group Ibec has upgraded its forecasts for growth in the economy this year in its latest Quarterly Economic Outlook. It now forecasts that the domestic economy will grow by 3.6% this year while GDP is expected to grow by 5.2%. It also expects inflation to be lower than previously forecast with consumer prices to…

The number of people in employment increased by 68,600 or 2.7% to 2,574,500 in the year to the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the Central Statistics Office. This is the highest number of people employed in the State since the CSO series began in 1998. The latest CSO Labour Force Survey shows that the…

Access to finance is the biggest challenge facing tech startups here, a survey of founders by Scale Ireland concludes. Four in five respondents to the latest State of Start-ups survey said they believed it was difficult to attract capital in the current environment. That was slightly higher than the percentage who reported the same issue…

The rate of increase in prices in the construction sector is showing signs of easing, a new report from the Society of Chartered Surveyors suggests. The latest SCSI Tender Price Index shows that, while costs are continuing to rise, the rate of inflation eased significantly towards the end of last year to 4%. It was…

The post-pandemic rebound in world growth and inflation last year meant the amount of debt sloshing around the global economy saw its first annual fall in dollar terms since 2015, a widely tracked study has shown. The Institute of International Finance report published on Wednesday estimated that the nominal value of global debt declined by…

Households were €1,000 worse off last year when inflation was taken into account – despite a rise in the median annual household disposable income – according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office. The CSO said the median annual household disposable income increased by over €500 last year to €47,000 compared to the previous…

The wholesale price of electricity fell further in January, dropping by 41.4% compared to December, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. Wholesale electricity prices were 19.5% lower in January this year compared to January 2022. Overall, the price of raw materials for goods produced for the domestic market rose by 8.2%…

A number of retailers in Ireland say they are experiencing availability issues with certain fruit and vegetables. They say salad products such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are in short supply due to bad weather conditions in Italy and Spain. Tesco Ireland said that “due to bad weather in seasonal supply from Morocco and Spain,…