Archive for July 2023

The ECB has raised interest rates at every meeting over the past year and promised another hike this month The ECB has raised interest rates at every meeting over the past year and promised another hike this month Underlying inflation pressures, a key focus for the European Central Bank, are finally easing across the euro…

Construction activity in Ireland increased in June for the first time since September of last year, albeit slightly. New data from the BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland Construction Purchasing Managers Index shows new orders and employment both continued to expand during the month. They also did so at their quickest pace since March. Inflation also…

Retail sales volumes in the 20 nations sharing the euro currency were unchanged from April and were 2.9% lower year-on-year. That compared with average forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists of a 0.2% monthly rise and a 2.7% decline from a year earlier. Consumption has been sluggish as real incomes fall and households are…

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has calculated that the Government plans to increase core spending next year by €5.5 billion, some €250 million more than set out in the Summer Economic Statement published yesterday. In a series of tweets, the Council said this would see spending rise by 6.4% and not the 6.1% in the…

One in three people in Ireland say they are just about getting by financially, a new report conducted on behalf of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) suggests. More than 1,500 people were surveyed for the study, which is the first in a series of reports on financial wellbeing in Ireland. The study and…

Ireland’s General Government debt fell by €11 billion to €225 billion in 2022 and has the potential to fall below €200 billion by 2030, according to the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA). The NTMA has published its 2023 mid-year business update which shows that the fall in Government debt in 2022 was the first since…

One in three people in Ireland say they are just about getting by financially, a new report conducted on behalf of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) suggests. More than 1,500 people were surveyed for the study, which is the first in a series of reports on financial wellbeing in Ireland. The study and…

Euro zone business activity slipped into contractionary territory last month in a broad-based downturn across the bloc’s dominant services industry and a deepening decline of factory output, a survey showed. HCOB’s final Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global and seen as a good gauge of overall economic health, slumped to 49.9 in…

The services sector covers areas as diverse as communication, financial and business services, IT and the tourism trade The services sector covers areas as diverse as communication, financial and business services, IT and the tourism trade The country’s services sector grew at a strong rate again last month, reigniting inflationary pressures as both input costs…

Euro zone consumers cut their inflation expectations for the following 12 months again in May, although they still saw prices growing faster than the European Central Bank would like for years to come, a new ECB poll showed today. The ECB’s monthly Consumer Expectations Survey also showed modest expectations for income growth. The survey was…