EU reaches agreement with UK on access to IT system
The EU and UK have reached an agreement on EU access to UK IT systems governing the movement of goods from Britain to Northern Ireland in what is seen as a significant development in the ongoing talks over the Northern Ireland Protocol. The agreement was announced following a meeting between the British foreign secretary James […]
Euro zone inflation falls sharply in December but offers ECB little respite
Euro zone inflation fell by more than expected last month but underlying price pressures rose, making it likely the European Central Bank will continue raising interest rates for months to come. Consumer price growth in the bloc that expanded to 20 nations when Croatia joined on 1 January, slowed to 9.2% in December from 10.1% […]
Remote and hybrid job posts up 43%
Irish job posts offering remote and hybrid work have increased by 43% over the last 12 months according to a new study. The report has been published by Zoom in collaboration with FRS Recruitment. A snapshot of hybrid and remote work opportunities advertised between October 2021 and October 2022 shows that 33% of all job […]
Retail sales volumes slow down in November – CSO
Retail sales volumes in November declined from the previous month as increases in sales of clothing and electrical goods failed to offset sharp falls in the bar and car sales. New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that retail sales fell by 1.4% in November when compared with October on a seasonally adjusted basis. […]
Flexible working hours good for business – UN
Flexible working arrangements like those introduced during the Covid-19 crisis are not only good for employees but also boost productivity and potentially a business’s bottom line, the United Nations said today. In its first report focusing on work-life balances, the UN’s International Labour Organization evaluated the effects of working time, working hours and working time […]
Euro zone producer prices fall as expected in November
Euro zone producer prices fell month-on-month as expected in November, the EU’s statistics office said today, pulled down by falling costs of energy. The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said prices at factory gates in the 19 countries sharing the euro fell 0.9% month-on-month for a 27.1% year-on-year rise. The monthly fall was mainly due […]
Inflation hit a 38 year high in 2022 but economy strong – CSO
The Central Statistics Office has published an online compilation of significant statistics about the economy and business recorded last year. The report notes that inflation reached a 38 year high in 2022, with the annual rate peaking at 9.2% in October before falling slightly in November. This was based on big increases in energy prices […]
Services sector growth picks back up in December
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 […]
Exchequer collected record €83bn in tax last year
The Exchequer collected a record €83.1 billion in tax last year, according to figures published this evening by the Department of Finance. That is €14.7 billion ahead of the previous record set in 2021, an increase of 21.5%. The increase is put down to higher levels of corporation tax, income tax and VAT. The figures […]
Euro zone recession may not be as deep as expected – PMI
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, […]
Remote working, new employment laws and pay claims – the world of work in 2022
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 […]
Croatia joins the Euro and enters Schengen area
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 registered in 2022, down 10% on 2019
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 […]
Rate of growth in prices being sought for properties slows to 6% – MyHome.ie report
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 […]
Manufacturing contracts amid sharp fall in new orders
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. […]
Euro zone business lending growth slows sharply in November
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 […]
Hiring rates decline but focus on ‘green talent’ – report
Hiring rates have declined from post-pandemic highs, according to IDA Ireland’s latest Labour Market Pulse. The study, which is published in partnership with Microsoft and LinkedIn, shows that hiring rates were 12.7% lower in October 2022 compared to October 2021. However, the 2022 figure is still above hiring rates in both October 2019 and 2020. […]
ECB might raise interest rates at current pace for a while – de Guindos
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 […]