Archive for May 2023

The Taoiseach has said debt reduction, increasing some of the capital budgets, and the establishment of a new sovereign wealth fund, are among the options being considered for using expected surpluses in the public finances. Leo Varadkar said: “We have an aging population and a growing population. While we might be in surplus now, that’s…

Oil prices rose today as fears of a recession in the US, which drove prices down for three weeks in a row for the first time since November, started receding. Brent crude futures were up 43 cents, or 0.6%, at $75.73 a barrel in early trade. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up…

Almost half of Irish companies are concerned about the costs or time involved in meeting new EU rules on greenwashing, new research shows. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), strengthens the rules around the social and environmental information which companies have to report. Under the law, EU companies will have to report in more detail,…

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise Neale Richmond has said that the Government wants to work with retailers to make sure costs people pay are reasonable and realistic based on declining inflation. His comments come ahead of a meeting with the Retail Forum on Wednesday, which will see representatives of the country’s major…

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the country’s unemployment rate fell to 3.9% in April from a revised 4% a month earlier to match the previous record low of the early 2000s. The jobless rate had remained between 4.2% and 4.5% over the last year, according to recent CSO figures. But the…

The European Central Bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.25% as expected today and signalled that more tightening would be needed to tame inflation. The central bank for the 20 countries that share the euro has lifted rates by a combined 375 basis points since last July, its fastest pace of tightening.…

The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council has said that overall the country’s “macroeconomic fundamentals” are strong. In its Competitiveness Scorecard report, published every three years, the council found that Ireland scores well on education and skills, but comparatively worse when it comes to transport and housing. Ireland has the second highest share of workers with…

There has been a €76 drop in real weekly wages over the past two years due to rising inflation, according to new research from the Unite trade union. It shows that the real median wage in Ireland, adjusted for the impact of inflation, has fallen from €976 per week to €900 per week, since the…

The latest AIB Services Business Activity Index grew from 55.7 to 58.4 during the month, well above the 50 threshold separating growth from contraction. It was the twenty-sixth consecutive month of expansion and the most pronounced in 11 months. “It points to a robust rate of growth in services activity,” said Oliver Mangan, Chief Economist…

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank meets in Frankfurt today where it is widely expected to increase interest rates for the seventh time since it began raising rates last summer. The ECB’s base deposit rate is currently 3%. Market analysts are divided over whether the bank will increase rates today by another half…