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The European Central Bank has today raised its forecast for economic growth in 2021, as the euro zone recovery gathers pace following the easing of many pandemic curbs. The euro zone economy is now expected to grow by 5% this year, up from 4.6% in the last forecast, and by 4.6% in 2022, slightly down…

Female students have lower salary expectations than their male counterparts across a number of sectors, according to research by Universum, which is part of IrishJobs.ie. The study found that male graduates had higher expectations for their starting salaries in all seven of the sectors surveyed, with some seeing considerably larger gaps than others. There was…

The chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, Conor O’Kelly, has told an audience of investors that the economy is set to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity early next year. Speaking at an event organised by the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, Mr O’Kelly said Ireland’s position coming out of the pandemic crisis “couldn’t…

The Minister for Finance has said he is not looking at making any further changes to the framework for October’s budget beyond what was set out in the Summer Economic Statement, despite better than expected tax receipts in recent months. Paschal Donohoe was speaking during a webinar organised by the farm and agribusiness professional services…

Over a fifth of SMEs expect to pass higher prices on to their customers as a result of inflationary pressures, according to a survey of SMEs by the peer to peer digital lending platform Linked Finance. That is up from just 6% a year ago. Rising costs are particularly apparent in larger SMEs – defined…

The Government has said that no recipients of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) will be transitioned to Jobseeker payments before October 22. It had planned to move recipients whose payment was at or had been reduced to €203 over to Jobseekers payments in September as part of the wind down plan for the scheme. “This…

The euro zone economy grew by more than initially forecast in the second quarter of the year, revised data from the EU’s statistics office showed. Today’s figures showed that consumer spending rebounded sharply after two quarters of decline during Covid-19 lockdowns. Eurostat said today that gross domestic product in the 19 countries sharing the euro…

Ireland’s €9.2 billion sovereign investment fund has almost doubled its total investment gains in eighteen months. The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund – which has a mandate to invest on a commercial basis to support economic activity and jobs – generated an investment return of €450 million in the first half of 2021. It brings to…

A new targeted Government funded support scheme, aimed at assisting vulnerable but viable businesses whose earnings have collapsed due to Covid-19 restrictions, has opened for applications. Under the Business Resumption Support Scheme (BRSS) registered firms can claim a single payment equivalent to three times their average weekly turnover in 2019. Businesses availed of other schemes…

The Covid-19 pandemic has cost the tourism sector here €13.4bn and 100,000 jobs have been lost as a result, a new report claims. The study by the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) says the reduction of overseas visitors has cost the industry €8.1bn since 2019, with lost fares to Irish carriers accounting for €3bn. The…