Archive for January 2025

The European Central Bank is expected to cut interest rates by 0.25% when its governing council meets today. This will bring the main refinancing rate, which is used to price mortgages, from 3.15% to 2.9%. The bank has been steadily cutting rates as inflation has declined from its peak of 10.6% in 2022. If the…

Mortgage drawdowns by first-time buyers (FTB) hit the highest level since 2007 last year, new figures show. The data from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland reveals that over 26,000 mortgages were drawn down by this group in 2024, worth €7.8 billion. In total, 40,030 mortgages were drawn down last year, valued at almost €12.6 billion.…

Over 80% of Irish consumers were targeted by scammers last year, new data shows. The research carried out by international money app Wise, reveals that almost half of consumers were targeted in the last three months of 2024 alone. This comes as the Irish Government has proposed new legislation, recommending measures such as the publication…

A preliminary estimate from the Central Statistics Office today shows that gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 1.3% in the fourth quarter of 2024 from the previous three months, but was 6.3% higher than the same quarter the previous year. The Government has long cautioned against using GDP to accurately measure economic growth as it…

Spain’s economy expanded a stronger-than-expected 3.2% in 2024, by far outperforming its euro zone peers’ sputtering economies, preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute showed today. Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said on Monday the government would raise its forecast for this year above the 2.4% following the release of the annual data, which was buoyed…

Technology stocks regained some ground today with chipmaker Nvidia up about 2.5% in early trading, a day after it suffered the biggest one-day market capitalisation loss in history, and traders moved back out of safe-haven currencies into the dollar. On Wall Street, the mood was calmer than it was on Monday, with the S&P 500…

Revenue’s Collector General says Revenue will work with businesses negatively impacted by storm Éowyn. Joe Howley said Revenue understands that many of those impacted are not in a position to file returns because they do not have power, or may be facing longer term problems if their businesses have been damaged. “We will be pragmatic…

Euro zone banks tightened firms’ access to credit last quarter and expect further tightening in the first three months of 2025, a European Central Bank survey showed today, reinforcing the case for more interest rate cuts as the economy slows. Lending growth has been broadly stagnant for most of 2024 as the long-awaited economic recovery…

The share of Irish job postings on hiring platform Indeed offering remote or hybrid work rose to a record high at the end of December 2024. Indeed’s Jobs & Hiring Trends Report found that 17.5% of posting mentioned remote or hybrid, a level that is more than four times that recorded prior to the Covid…

New research from the Central Bank shows that the total value of fraudulent payments rose by 26% in 2023, increasing to €126m from €100m in 2022. But today’s research also reveals that the rate of fraud in Ireland as a share of all transactions is low – by value and by volume the rates are…