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The Minister for Finance has said the Government faces a challenge in the upcoming budget in getting the balance right between providing an appropriate amount of support needed for society and the economy without pushing inflation higher. But addressing the Dublin Chamber annual dinner, Michael McGrath said he is confident it will get it right.…

New figures from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage shows that the number of new commencement notices for August rose by 30.6% compared to the same time last year. The Department said commencement notices for 2,770 new homes were received by Building Control Authorities in August, up from 2.121 units in August of…

Consumer confidence dropped to a six month low in September, amid a rebound in oil prices, a further rise in interest rates and a gloomier economic outlook. The Credit Union Consumer Sentiment Index declined from 62.2 in August to 58.8 in September, marking the second monthly drop in a row. Modest improvements in confidence were…

The Governor of the Central Bank has said his view is that March is probably too early a time to expect interest rates in the eurozone to start falling again. Gabriel Makhlouf also said he would like to see a much faster pass through of European Central Bank interest rate changes to the real economy.…

The Minister for Finance has written to Government colleagues asking that public bodies under their remit maintain their existing payment methods in relation to accepting cash pending the completion of the National Payments Strategy. Michael McGrath also said he expects that all public bodies that currently accept or facilitate the acceptance of cash will continue…

It is unlikely that households will see energy prices return to the previous low levels seen in 2020 and 2021 over the coming months, a new report from the energy regulator has found. But the research from the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) does predict that gas and electricity customers should see some…

The Government has extended the First Home Scheme to self-builders who are building their first home. The scheme, which was launched just over a year ago, works by providing homebuyers with part of the purchase price in return for a minority equity stake in the home. It is already open to people buying newly-built houses…

Summer spending recovered slightly last month despite the continuing bad weather, a new survey shows today. The AIB August Spend Trend report reveals that overall spending rose by 1% in August compared to the previous month. The bank its report suggests that due to the bad weather many people decided to stay home with spending…

Euro zone consumer inflation in August was slightly lower than initially estimated, the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said today. But it still remained more than twice the European Central Bank’s target of 2%. Eurostat said inflation in the 20 countries sharing the euro was 0.5% month-on-month in August and 5.2% year-on-year, lower than the…

The Central Bank has lowered its forecasts for growth in the economy based on weaker exports from multinationals in Ireland, but has left its outlook for inflation broadly unchanged. In its Quarterly Bulletin, published today, the bank also said the Government’s spending plans for the upcoming Budget risk adding to inflation. The bank forecasts that…