Eurozone retail sector data signalled a month-on-month rise in sales, allowing for seasonal factors. The Markit Eurozone Retail PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index), based on a mid-month survey of more than 1,000 executives in the retail sector, rose above the neutral level of 50.0 and signalled monthly growth of sales for the first time since May [...]
US home price data through October 2009, released Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, show that the annual rate of decline of the 10-City and 20-City Composites improved compared to September and marked nine months of improved results, beginning in early 2009. Average US prices are at 2003 levels and [...]
Black or illegal economies in countries can help during a recession but dishonest activity has to be on a sizeable scale to have an impact, according to research by Germany’s biggest bank Deutsche Bank.
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) said on Monday that it expects a multi-speed recovery in Europe in 2010 with the jobs market only picking up gradually. Meanwhile, ECB (European Central Bank) president, Jean-Claude Trichet, said that “confidence is the key word for 2010.”
World trade rose by 0.8% month on month in October, after a strong 5.4% increase in September, but it was still 13.2% below its peak of April 2008. Meanwhile, Bloomberg says a 26-mile-long line of idled oil tankers, enough to blockade the English Channel, may signal a 25% slump in freight rates next year.
Irish Economy 2009: The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) says in its Winter Quarterly Economic Commentary, published today, that it is hard to overstate what a difficult year 2009, has been for the Irish economy. The ESRI says that while Budget 2010 was clearly regressive, the combination of Budgets 2009 and 2010 placed most [...]
Irish merchandise exports plunged 14% in October relative to September 2009 but were up by 11% in September compared with August, according to data from the CSO. Imports fell by 7% in October 2009 relative to September and were down 1% in September compared with August. On an unadjusted basis, the value of exports in [...]
Irish Economy: Earnings in the private sector fell by 3.1% compared with a rise of 1.3% in the public sector in the year to Q2 2009 — before deduction of the pension levy that was introduced in March 2009. In small firms (i.e. less than 50 employess) weekly earnings fell by 4.9%. In small firms [...]
IDA Ireland, the inward development promotion agency, on Monday issued a statement on its 2009 performance and said its support companies had lost a net 9,000 jobs in the year, while new companies investing in Ireland for the first time were at 37 – – a rise of 11% on 2008. However, there was no [...]
Happy Christmas, Maligayang Pasko, Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái or Happy Holidays, if that is your fancy! We are in holiday mode from today but we will add some updates until Wednesday.
“Et tu brute,” some of the last words of Roman dictator Julius Caesar, as he recognises his protégé Marcus Junius Brutus among his assassins, according to a version of history penned by William Shakespeare, in the play Julius Caesar. Betrayal of trust and its victims has been a multi-theme story in 2009 and apart from [...]
Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities: The CSO reported today that the Irish Public Sector payroll fell by 8,200 to 360,900 in the year to September 2009. Meanwhile average earnings rose 2.5%. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan says it will not tolerate deflation.
German business confidence rose to 17-month high in December as the global recovery triggered a rebound in in exports and manufacturing growth. The business climate index ndustry and trade, rose to 94.7 from 93.9 in November – – the highest since July 2008.
We have been provided with two examples in the past week of Irish national newspaper columnists, Bruce Arnold and Fintan O’Toole showing themselves to be dodgy “economists” and our business is to present economic facts, where available!
Ryanair, today confirmed that its quarterly board meeting yesterday determined that its negotiations with Boeing for an order of up to 200 new B737-800 series aircraft for delivery during the period 2013-2016 cannot be successfully concluded prior to the end of the calendar year and have been terminated unsuccessfully.
Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.
Creating 160,000 net new jobs in the Irish economy is a daunting challenge but starry aspirations and pious hopes about exports from armchair ”experts,” are a far from adequate response.
Bank of England’s executive director for financial stability, Andy Haldane, says “there is not so much as a scintilla of evidence of bigger being better in banking is the truth of it. A lot of the noise around that really is rhetoric.” He also believes that UK should support regulation that risks losing some financial [...]
Global Economy 2010: The cyclical economic upswing in the developed world will continue into the early part of 2010 and, apart from eastern Europe, developing countries will recover relatively quickly from the 2008-09 financial and economic crisis.
Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil; The US Senate Banking Committee voted 16-7 in favor of confirming Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for a second term. Six Republicans and one Democrat opposed confirmation. The full senate is expected to vote on Bernanke’s confirmation in early 2010. Meawhile, the US Labor Department reported today that [...]
The US Leading Economic Index (LEI) increased 0.9 percent in November, following a 0.3 percent gain in October, and a 1.2 percent rise in September.
The number of people with Irish private health insurance has fallen by over 40,000 (almost 2% of those insured) in 2009 and the numbers forced to cancel their policies is likely to increase significantly in 2010 the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children was told today.
The majority of Irish Defined Benefit Pension Schemes, which guarantee final benefit are insolvent, according to a report published Thursday.
Initial estimates of Irish Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP), on a seasonally adjusted basis, for the third quarter of 2009 show a decline of 1.4 per cent in GNP and a small increase of 0.3 per cent in GDP compared with the previous quarter. In comparison with the corresponding quarter of [...]
Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities; UK retail sales unexpectedly fell in November for the first time in six months in a signal of what is expected to be a bumpy recovery in 2010. Meanwhile, the US dollar strengthened Thursday to a 3-month high against the euro after the Federal Reserve said the US [...]
