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Euro zone business activity contracted less than initially thought at the end of last year as price pressures eased, according to a survey which suggested the bloc’s recession may not be as deep as expected. S&P Global’s final composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the euro zone, seen as a good gauge of economic health,…

Expansion in the services sector picked up in December following four months of slowing growth in a row to push overall activity in the private sector back into positive territory, a survey showed today. The AIB S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for services rose to 52.7 from 50.8 in November. It had come close…

Croatia has switched to the Euro and entered Europe’s passport-free zone – two major milestones for the country after joining the European Union nearly a decade ago. At midnight (23.00pm on Saturday Irish time) the Balkan nation bid farewell to its kuna currency and become the 20th member of the Eurozone. It is the 27th…

105,253 new cars were registered last year, up marginally on 2021, but down 10% on the pre-Covid levels recorded in 2019. The figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) reveal that 15,678 electric vehicles were registered throughout 2022 – up over 80% on the previous year and 355% higher than 2019. Petrol…

The Covid pandemic led to a reimagining of the concept of work. Forced to stay at home, employees and businesses quickly realised that tasks they had always performed in-person or on-site could be done remotely. Staff who sat in traffic and sat at a desk in an office building all their working lives saw that…

The Irish manufacturing sector contracted for the second month running in December, the latest Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) from AIB concludes. The deterioration in conditions came on the back of a sharp drop in new orders, the study found. A contraction in new and outstanding work accelerated and output fell, albeit at a slower pace.…

Bank lending to euro zone companies slowed in November, easing back from the sector’s biggest borrowing binge in over a decade as rising interest rates and a looming recession appear to be taking a toll, European Central Bank data showed today. Lending to businesses in the 19-country euro area expanded by 8.4% in November after…

The annual rate of growth in prices being sought for properties nationally slowed to 6% in the final three months of 2022, a new report from property website MyHome.ie concludes. The report suggests a continuation of the trend whereby prices in Dublin are rising at a slower pace than those in the rest of the…

The European Central Bank may raise interest rates at its current pace for a “period of time” to curb inflation, Vice-President Luis de Guindos said today. “We have no choice but to act,” he said in an interview with Le Monde paper published on Thursday. “Increases of 50 basis points may become the new norm…

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said Ireland can become energy independent within a generation or less and that this generation should be the one that turns the tide on climate change and biodiversity loss. Launching the Government’s updated national Climate Action Plan today, Mr Varadkar said we must prepare ourselves for the adverse effects of climate…