The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) today announced details of the Irish National Solidarity Bond. The bond, designed with individual savers in mind, will pay a 50% gross return over 10 years and will be available for purchase in all Post Offices from Tuesday next, 4th May.
The European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary affairs, Olli Rehn, said today that as the European Commission is responsible for the EU to negotiate the joint EU-IMF programme with Greece, he has been in a daily contact with and just spoke again with the mission in Athens, whose team has been working day and night [...]
The Central Statistics Office said today that the amount of money spent by Irish people on foreign travel dropped by almost 20% in 2009. Irish people made just under 7.3 million trips abroad last year, down 9.3% from 2008. The amount of money spent on these trips was down 19.5% to just under €5.8bn.
Following its meeting with representatives from Quinn Insurance, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment has agreed to call on the Financial Regulator to allow Quinn Insurance Limited immediate access to participate again in all of the profitable sections of the UK insurance market in the Northern Ireland and in Britain.
EBS, the Educational Building Society, which was founded in the 1930s to provide housing loans for teachers, today reported a loss of almost €80m in 2009, after providing about €200m for bad debts.
The European Central Bank (ECB) reported today that the annual rate of change of M3 — a broad measure of the money and credit supply in the Eurozone economy – – increased to -0.1% in March 2010 from -0.3% in February 2010 – -a slight improvement.
The Eurozone business climate index and economic sentiment indicator improved again in April.
Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities.
Eurozone retail sales survey data for April, from Markit signalled a fourth successive monthly fall. The rate of decline slowed further from February’s eleven-month record, but remained steeper than the long-run trend seen since January 2004. The headline seasonally adjusted Eurozone Retail PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) rose to 47.2, from 46.9 in March. There is [...]
Fears that the Greek debt crisis would spread contagion to the weaker members of the 16-country common currency area, accelerated on Wednesday as Spain suffered a debt downgrade from Standard & Poor’s and the IMF managing director was reported to have said that €120bn would be needed to support a 3-year Greek adjustment programme. He [...]
Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil; AIB’s executive chairman Dan O’Connor told shareholders at the AGM (annual general meeting) today that the Irish Government is likely to take a stake of 16% or 17% in the bank next month. The shareholding will be in place of a dividend owed to the Government by the bank.
The European Central Bank (ECB) quarterly bank lending survey (BLS) shows that during the first quarter of 2010, a tightening of credit standards and a decrease in loan demand was reported for loans to enterprises and households by Irish banks. Similar to the January 2010 round of the BLS, access to wholesale funding markets is [...]
Between 2000 and 2009, EU27 exports of goods to Japan fell in value by around 20%, from €45bn to €36bn, while EU27 imports from Japan decreased by almost 40%, from €92bn to €56 bn. As a result, the EU27 deficit in trade with Japan decreased from €47bn in 2000 to €20bn in 2009 and the [...]
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O’Keeffe TD, today announced more than €25m over the next 5 years for 139 researchers to carry out “cutting-edge” Irish research that he hopes will generate new jobs in the “smart” economy.
Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities; The yield or return (when bonds with a fixed coupon or interest rate are dumped on the market, the value of the bond falls and the yield rises as the fixed rate amount is linked to a lower bond value) on 10-year Greek bonds rose to 10.131% Wednesday, [...]
Eurozone heads of state and government are to meet on May 10th for a summit on the Greek crisis, EU president Herman Van Rompuy said in Tokyo this morning.
Irish Economy: Davy, the broker firm, today said that the Irish economy has pulled out of recession. It expects growth of 1% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 to be confirmed by the National Accounts at the end of June.
Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.
Germany’s jobs miracle: Despite enduring the worst recession since 1945, Germany achieved a remarkable success in holding unemployment growth at about 200,000 from an October 2008 low, through a mix of short-time work, flexible labour contracts and healthy companies coming into the downturn.
Goldman Sachs, Wall Street’s powerful investment bank, faced a grilling on Tuesday at hearings of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and before the more than ten hours of probing ended, Goldman’s shares closed up on a bad day on Wall Street.
Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities; Germany’s biggest bank Deutsche Bank today reported that first quarter jumped 48% from a year earlier to €1.8bn. Revenue rose 24% to €9bn, while provisions against bad loans were slashed by 50% to €262m; the investment-banking unit posted a doubling in pretax profit to €2.6bn in the quarter.
Dublin Port Company, a State-owned firm, reports today that trade figures for March show a fourth consecutive month of rising activity.
Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.
The GfK German consumer confidence index has shown a further improvement in spring 2010. Both economic and income expectations have increased considerably, although the propensity to buy – – as in the previous month – – has recorded marginal losses. The overall indicator is forecasting a value of 3.8 points in May this year, following [...]
NCB Stockbrokers on Monday published a report asking if the decline in Irish house prices is over?
