Archive for September 2023

The Government has extended the First Home Scheme to self-builders who are building their first home. The scheme, which was launched just over a year ago, works by providing homebuyers with part of the purchase price in return for a minority equity stake in the home. It is already open to people buying newly-built houses…

Euro zone consumer inflation in August was slightly lower than initially estimated, the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said today. But it still remained more than twice the European Central Bank’s target of 2%. Eurostat said inflation in the 20 countries sharing the euro was 0.5% month-on-month in August and 5.2% year-on-year, lower than the…

Summer spending recovered slightly last month despite the continuing bad weather, a new survey shows today. The AIB August Spend Trend report reveals that overall spending rose by 1% in August compared to the previous month. The bank its report suggests that due to the bad weather many people decided to stay home with spending…

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that residential property prices rose by 1.5% in the 12 months to July. This marked the slowest annual rate of growth in almost three years and compared to a growth rate of 13.1% the same time last year. Prices in Dublin decreased by 1.4% and prices outside…

The Central Bank has lowered its forecasts for growth in the economy based on weaker exports from multinationals in Ireland, but has left its outlook for inflation broadly unchanged. In its Quarterly Bulletin, published today, the bank also said the Government’s spending plans for the upcoming Budget risk adding to inflation. The bank forecasts that…

Grocery price inflation slowed to 11.5% in the 12 weeks to September 3, new figures from Kantar show today. This marks the lowest level of grocery price inflation since September of last year and is down from a rate of 12.8% in the 12 weeks to August 6. But it remains much higher than the…

A slowdown in construction activity continued in August, according to the latest construction purchasing managers index from BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland. There was a sharper contraction in activity last month than in July, as a continued fall in demand saw new orders shrink and the rate of employment growth ease. The PMI stood at…

Vladimir Lenin is widely credited with the phrase ‘there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen’. He could well have been talking about the Irish stock exchange – or Euronext Dublin, as it’s now known – and events on the frontline there of late. It appears as if there has…

Wholesale electricity prices continued their decline in August compared to prices last year, according to the latest report published by the Single Electricity Market Operator (SEMO). SEMO operates the wholesale market for electricity on the island of Ireland. Its figures show that, in the year to end of August, the daily average price for wholesale…

The Minister for Finance has said the latest European Central Bank interest rate increase will undoubtedly add pressure to many households who already are carrying the burden of previous interest rate hikes. This afternoon, the ECB lifted its deposit rate to 4% from 3.75%, taking it to an all-time-high. Michael McGrath said the Government will…