News

Activity in the manufacturing sector improved in February amid a rise in new orders, according to the latest AIB Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). After a period of weak activity over the winter months, the PMI moved back into expansion mode. The index rose to 51.3 last month from 50.1 in January and 48.7 in both…

Almost €16 billion worth of mortgages were approved in the 12 months ending January 2023, according to new figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland. This was the highest value of annualised approvals recorded since BPFI started collecting the data in 2011. In total, 58,000 mortgages were approved within those 12 months. In January 2023…

Euro zone inflation pressures have begun to ease, including for all-important core prices, but the European Central Bank will not end rate hikes until it is confident price growth is heading back towards 2%, ECB chief economist Philip Lane said. The ECB has raised rates by 3 percentage points since July. It plans another half…

Electric Ireland will reduce its electricity tariffs for small and medium enterprises in the Republic of Ireland by an average of 10% from next month. Gas prices for these businesses are set to fall by an average of 15%. However, the energy company said it is very difficult to project the trajectory of residential electricity…

The Minister for Finance has said he expects inflation to fall “much more rapidly than previously assumed.” Speaking ahead of a speech to the Irish Tax Institute in Dublin, Minister Michael McGrath said the Department of Finance now believes inflation will average between 4% and 5% this year, with the annual rate falling to 4%…

Gas generated 42% of the country’s electricity demand in January, new figures show today Gas generated 42% of the country’s electricity demand in January, new figures show today The country’s gas demand fell by 8% in January compared to December due to milder than usual weather during the month. New figures from Gas Networks Ireland…

Employers’ group Ibec has upgraded its forecasts for growth in the economy this year in its latest Quarterly Economic Outlook. It now forecasts that the domestic economy will grow by 3.6% this year while GDP is expected to grow by 5.2%. It also expects inflation to be lower than previously forecast with consumer prices to…

The number of people in employment increased by 68,600 or 2.7% to 2,574,500 in the year to the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the Central Statistics Office. This is the highest number of people employed in the State since the CSO series began in 1998. The latest CSO Labour Force Survey shows that the…

Access to finance is the biggest challenge facing tech startups here, a survey of founders by Scale Ireland concludes. Four in five respondents to the latest State of Start-ups survey said they believed it was difficult to attract capital in the current environment. That was slightly higher than the percentage who reported the same issue…

The rate of increase in prices in the construction sector is showing signs of easing, a new report from the Society of Chartered Surveyors suggests. The latest SCSI Tender Price Index shows that, while costs are continuing to rise, the rate of inflation eased significantly towards the end of last year to 4%. It was…