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Small and medium sized businesses here could record a combined total shortfall in revenue this year of between €10.3bn and €11.7bn, according to a new analysis by the Central Bank of Ireland. However, the bank says the estimates are subject to significant uncertainty because of the current economic and health situation and the inability of…

The state should maintain investment in capital infrastructure programmes despite the economic difficulties caused by Covid-19, but the construction sector must guarantee value for money, according to the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure Reform.  Addressing the Construction Industry Federation conference earlier today, Robert Watt said there was no imperative to cut back…

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is due to make a statement on Brexit shortly. It will reference the UK’s Internal Market Bill, which breaches the Northern Ireland Protocol. The statement comes as Taoiseach Micheál Martin joins other EU leaders for a two-day summit in Brussels today, which will be dominated by the EU’s…

The Government has urged commercial landlords to show forbearance to tenants who cannot meet their obligations under their leases because of the financial pressures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The request came as it published a new voluntary code of conduct on commercial rents that has been agreed between landlords and business representatives. The code…

The Tokyo Stock Exchange suspended share trading for the full day today as a glitch in its electronic trading system caused the worst outage ever suffered by the world’s third-largest stock market.  The shutdown frustrated investors looking to buy back shares after the first US presidential debate. It could also tarnish the exchange’s credibility just…

Consumer sentiment improved marginally in September, recovering about half of the decline seen in August, a new survey shows today. The KBC Bank Ireland consumer sentiment index increased to 60.7 in September, a 1.8 percentage point gain that followed a 3.7 point drop in August. The September reading remains well above the low-point of 42.6…

Britain’s economy shrank by a record 19.8% in the second quarter of 2020 when Covid-19 lockdown measures were in force. This was a slightly smaller decline than an initial estimate of a 20.4% fall in output, official figures showed today.  Output during the three months to the end of June was 21.5% lower than a year…

The Department of Finance has significantly revised upwards its outlook for the economy this year.  In a statement published this afternoon, the department has forecast that the economy, as measured by GDP, will shrink by 2.5% this year. But that compares to a forecast by the department in April that projected that GDP would shrink by…

New figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland show that the monthly growth trend in the number of approved mortgages continued in August, while they continued to be lower on an annual basis. The BPFI figures show that a total of 3,875 mortgages were approved in August. This marked an increase of 14.1% from July…

The EU has rebuffed attempts by the British government to intensify and accelerate negotiations in order to reach a future trade agreement by mid-October, RTÉ News understands. The ninth round of future relationship negotiations gets underway tomorrow in Brussels, with both sides at odds over the prospects for a breakthrough. Late last week Downing Street…