Oil prices jump 1.5% in first session of New Year
Oil prices jumped 1.5% in the first session of the New Year, due to potential supply disruptions in the Middle East after a naval clash in the Red Sea, and hopes of strong holiday demand and an economic stimulus in China, the top crude importer. Brent crude rose $1.20, or 1.5%, to $78.24 a barrel […]
Consumer sentiment improves but anxiety remains
Consumer sentiment improved slightly in December and was significantly higher year-on-year, according to the latest report by the Irish League of Credit Unions. The latest survey had a reading of 62.4, compared to 61.9 in November and 48.7 in December 2022. It represents a continuation of the broadly upward trend in consumer sentiment that began […]
NAMA transfers another €350m to Exchequer
The National Asset Management Agency has today completed a €350m cash transfer to the Exchequer as it approaches its orderly wind down. Today’s transfer brings the total cash paid to the Exchequer from NAMA’s surplus to €3.85 billion. NAMA has also made corporation tax payments of more than €400m so far. NAMA was set up […]
188,000 non-domestic water users may face higher bills next year
Up to 188,000 non-domestic customers of Uisce Éireann are facing higher bills for water and waste water treatment from October, if proposals from the regulator are adopted. The changes would see the annual bills of 172,837 or 91.6% non-domestic customers rise less than €250, while 8,100 or 4.3% would face annual bill increases of between […]
Govt makes significant changes to work permit system
The Government has announced the largest ever expansion of the employment permits system, in an effort to address the skills gap in a range of key areas amid full employment in the economy. 11 new roles have been added to the list of occupations classed as critical skills, including Meteorologist, Project Engineer, Professional Forester and […]
Oil prices set to end winning streak over US stock build
Oil prices fell today and were on track to snap a three-day winning streak, as concerns over low demand following a surprise US crude inventory build outweighed jitters over global trade disruptions due to tensions in the Middle East. Brent crude futures fell 22 cents, or 0.3%, to $79.48 a barrel early this morning, while […]
Consumer sentiment improves but anxiety remains
Consumer sentiment improved slightly in December and was significantly higher year-on-year, according to the latest report by the Irish League of Credit Unions. The latest survey had a reading of 62.4, compared to 61.9 in November and 48.7 in December 2022. It represents a continuation of the broadly upward trend in consumer sentiment that began […]
UK inflation rate falls to lower than expected 3.9% in November
British inflation plunged in November to its lowest rate in over two years, prompting investors to pile further into bets that the Bank of England will cut interest rates next year. The annual rate of increase in the consumer prices index dropped to 3.9% from 4.6% in October, pushed down in part by petrol prices, […]
Surge in flight bookings in January – AIB spending report
January was the busiest month for flight bookings this year as consumers sought to escape the winter blues, an annual review of AIB’s Spend Trend has revealed. Wednesday, January 11 was the busiest individual day, the analysis reveals, with spending on flights at 57% above the daily average. The annual spending review shows that overall […]
Quarter of employees expect to deal with work emails over Christmas – survey
More than a quarter of employees expect they will be responding to work emails over Christmas, according to a new survey. The Human Workplace Index from Workhuman found that 22% of employees say they will not be able to fully switch off from work over their Christmas holidays, while 28% admitted that their large workload […]
Central Bank predicts economy will shrink this year
The Central Bank has become the latest economic forecaster to predict that the economy will shrink this year. Its latest Quarterly Bulletin also shows that lower income families have seen their real incomes decline over the past two years due to inflation while higher income groups have seen a faster recovery. Multinational companies exporting pharmaceutical […]
Build costs up by almost 25% since 2019 – BPFI
Construction costs here have gone up by almost a quarter in the last four years, an analysis by the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland has concluded. In its latest Housing Market Monitor, the BPFI said construction price inflation of 23% between the end of 2019 and the third quarter of this year compares to inflation […]
ECB raises capital demands for 20 banks over bad loans
The European Central Bank said today it had raised capital requirements for 20 banks after judging they had not set aside enough cash to cover for loans that had gone unpaid, a key concern for supervisors at a time of high borrowing costs. The move was part of the ECB’s push, set to continue next […]
Euro zone likely in recession, PMI surveys show
The downturn in euro zone business activity surprisingly deepened in December, according to closely watched surveys which indicated the bloc’s economy is almost certainly in recession. It was a broad-based decline with activity deteriorating in both Germany and France and across services and manufacturing, the surveys showed. Last quarter, the euro zone economy contracted 0.1%, […]
Prices at the pump down again in December – AA Ireland
The AA Ireland’s latest monthly fuel price survey has shown another drop in petrol and diesel prices over the last month. Petrol is down from €1.80 a litre in November to €1.72, while diesel has fallen from €1.81 to €1.72. December marked the third month in a row that prices have dropped at the pumps. […]
Air passenger numbers in third quarter up 13% compared to last year
New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that almost 1.4 million more passengers used Irish airports in the third quarter of this year compared to the same time last year. The CSO said the number of passengers travelling to and from Ireland in the third quarter rose by 2% when compared with the third […]
Short term mortgage arrears up 3% in third quarter
The number of mortgages on private homes that were in short term arrears of less than 90 days rose 3% between July and September compared to the previous quarter. But new Central Bank data today also shows that the number of mortgages in arrears over 90 days was unchanged compared to the April to June […]
Housing commencements up almost 30% in past year
Work began on 3,087 new homes across the State last month, according to commencement notices registered with the authorities. That’s up 18% on the 2,624 that were started in October of this year and a 29% boost on the number recorded in the same month of last year. 43% are homes in housing schemes, 45% […]