Inflation in the euro zone is expected to fall further but the European Central Bank needs more data before starting to cut interest rates, ECB Vice-President Luis de Guindos said today. The ECB has kept rates steady at a record high since September and consistently pushes back on rate cut talk, arguing that wage growth […]
Monthly Archives: February 2024
CEOs in Ireland more optimistic than in previous two years, research shows
CEOs in Ireland are more optimistic than in the previous two years as businesses adjust to geopolitical challenges, a new survey shows. The research carried out by business group Ibec reveals that 87% of respondents rate the outlook for the next six months as ‘good’ or ‘very good’, up from 66% last year. Meanwhile, 91% […]
Central Bank warns of risks coming from payment and e-money sector
The Governor of the Central Bank has warned of the heightened risk level associated with both the payment and e-money sector and the investment fund sector. Gabriel Makhlouf said concerns about the payment and e-money sector reflect significant control weaknesses found in firms operating in this market, “where their rates of growth and ambition have […]
Weekly earnings rose at half the rate of inflation in fourth quarter
New preliminary estimates from the Central Statistics Office show that average weekly earnings stood at €921.81 in the fourth quarter of 2023, up 2.1% compared with €902.56 in the fourth quarter of 2022. That rate of increase compares to an average inflation rate of 4.5% across the final three months of the year. Today’s CSO […]
Access to Cash Bill may damage competition in banking sector, BPFI warns
The organisation representing the banking sector has warned that certain provisions contained in draft legislation aimed at ensuring continued availability of cash services pose a very real risk to the present and future competitiveness of the Irish retail banking sector. The Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) also stated that the Access to Cash Bill […]
Internet watchdog ‘not an online censor’, committee to hear
The Digital Services Commissioner at media regulator Coimisiún na Meán will tell an Oireachtas committee that it is not their job to act as an online censor. John Evans is due to appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise to discuss the operation and resourcing of Coimisiún na Meán. Earlier this month, the regulator assumed […]
ESRI estimates strong MDD growth of 3.7% in December
A new estimate suggests that the domestic economy here grew reasonably strongly in December, despite challenging conditions. The “Nowcast”, produced by the Economic and Social Research Institute, predicts that Modified Domestic Demand (MDD) expanded by 3.7% in the month. That is up from 2.5% estimated for November. MDD is a measure of domestic economic activity […]
A third of workers have no cover outside of State pension
68% of workers aged between 20 and 69 have some form of pension cover outside of the State pension, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show. The number of people taking out a pension increases with age, according to the data. Just 33% of those aged between 20 to 24 had supplementary cover between […]
Commercial vacancy rate at highest in a decade
The commercial property vacancy rate nationally has increased to its highest level since GeoDirectory started tracking the data a decade ago. According to its latest Commercial Buildings Report, the vacancy rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to 14.3% in the year to the end of December. In total, there were 30,046 empty commercial units across […]
Thousands facing mortgage bill hike as fixed terms end
While tracker and variable mortgage customers have borne the brunt of the European Central Bank’s interest rate raising programme, those who managed to fix at the right time have remained largely insulated from its historically high interest rates. According to the Central Bank, Irish banks’ fixed mortgage customer were enjoying an average interest rate of […]