Posts by sean

The International Monetary Fund has sharply cut its growth forecasts for this year because of the disruption caused by the tariffs on imports introduced by the US. It says the tariff regime introduced on 2 April by the Trump administration will cut global economic growth by half of one per cent – reducing it to…

Wind farms provided 38% of the country’s electricity in first three months of 2025, according to a report by Wind Energy Ireland. Kerry wind farms led the way last month, producing more wind energy than any other county at 135 GWh. It was followed by Cork (125 GWh), then Galway (89 GWh), Mayo (87 GWh)…

Gold prices soared to a record high, hitting the crucial $3,500 mark today, as concerns over US President Donald Trump’s criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell dampened risk sentiment and drove investors towards safe-haven bullion. Spot gold was up 2.2% at $3,493.41 an ounce this morning, after touching a record high of $3,500.05 per…

Ireland faces the threat of higher electricity prices as it transitions away from fossil fuels to renewables, a new report by the National Economic and Social Council has found. The reports also warns the reliability of the energy supplies “may worsen” as Ireland moves to cleaner power generation if issues are not addressed. The State…

The European Union is determined to enforce its full digital rule book no matter who is in charge of companies such as X, Meta, Apple and Tiktok or where they are based, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Politico. “That’s why we’ve opened cases against TikTok, X, Apple, Meta just to name a few.…

New figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, show that euro area annual inflation fell to 2.2% in March from 2.3% in February. Euro zone inflation had stood at 2.4% in March of last year. Today’s figures show that the lowest annual rates of inflation were registered in France (0.9%), Denmark (1.4%),…

Residential property prices are up 8% in the 12 months to February 2025, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. It means the cost buying a home is continuing to accelerate, but at a marginally slower rate than it was during the previous 12 month period when prices rose by 8.2% in…

The European Central Bank is widely expected to cut interest rates by one-quarter of a percentage point later today. The development follows the latest inflation figures, for countries that use the euro, showing prices rose by 2.2% in March, down 0.1% on the February rate. It means the rise in the cost of living is…

The Government is being urged not to defer the deadline for auto-enrolment of workers into pension schemes beyond early 2026. The deadline is set to be pushed by beyond the current September date, in an effort to keep business costs low. Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said it is expected to be a short…

Preliminary figures from the Central Statistics Office show that exports of medical and pharmaceutical products jumped by €9.2 billion, or 145.7%, to €15.6 billion in February on the same month last year. The CSO said this represented 63.2% of total exports in February, which underscores the significance of the pharmaceutical industry to the Irish economy.…