Archive for May 2024

The Irish economy is expected to continue expanding at a robust pace in the coming years, according to a new report from AIB. However, it states that this growth will be more moderate than the pace of recent years as the economy bounced back from the pandemic. The inaugural AIB Economic Outlook Report forecasts that…

The annual rate of inflation increased to 1.9% in May, up from 1.6% in April, a flash estimate of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) from the Central Statistics Office showed today. The CSO said that HICP increased by 0.5% on a monthly basis, up from an increase of 0.2% in April. The core…

The Central Bank made a loss of €132.1m last year, as a result of monetary policy decisions taken across the euro area to bring inflation down. Its Governor said the bank had been expecting and preparing over a number of years for the possibility of making a loss at some point and has reserves of…

Major technology companies have called on politicians to regulate artificial intelligence. Appearing before TDs and senators on the Oireachtas Enterprise Committee, representatives from Amazon, Google and Microsoft spoke of the negative and positive impacts that the technology might have. Kieran McCorry, National Technology Officer of Microsoft Ireland, told committee members that, at present, there is…

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that average weekly earnings rose by 4.7% to stand at €969.12 in the first quarter of this year compared to €925.44 the same time last year. Today’s CSO figures also show that average hourly earnings rose by 4.5% to €29.82 in the first three months of the…

Almost €100m was stolen by fraudsters through frauds and scams last year, new data shows. That represents an increase of 16% on the previous year, according to FraudSMART which collated the information. 95% of total fraudulent transactions and 36% of gross fraud losses were accounted for by card fraud. Fraudulent card payments were up 8.2%…

The European Central Bank can gradually reduce interest rates given the decline in inflation, and decisions on future cuts could centre around quarterly meetings with new economic projections, Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot said today. The ECB has all but committed to a rate cut on June 6 when new economic forecasts will also…

New EU rules have come into effect aimed at ensuring the union has access to a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials. The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) is focused on protecting access to materials that are considered to be of high economic importance to the EU, but vulnerable to supply disruption. At…

The number of people in employment in the first quarter of the year stood at 2.7 million, a rise of 1.9% or 51,500, compared to a year ago. The annual change of 1.9% is the lowest annual increase in three years. The latest Labour Force Survey from the Central Statistics Office shows that 2,704,200 people…

New mortgage approvals rose again by both value and volume in April, driven by continued strong demand from first time buyers. The Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) said a total of 4,446 mortgages were approved last month. That is up 17.7% month-on-month and by 14% compared with the same period last year. In total…