Bank lending to euro zone companies held steady, maintaining the sector’s biggest borrowing binge in over a decade, despite rising interest rates and a looming recession, European Central Bank data showed today. Lending to businesses in the 19-country euro area expanded by 8.9% in October, unchanged on September when it rose to its highest rate…
An extension by the Government of the mandate of Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) will mean that thousands more small businesses here will be eligible for export grants. Under the move the LEOs will be able to give assistance directly to companies that have over ten employees which are operating in manufacturing and international traded services….
Irish households are expected to spend the same amount of money this Christmas as they did last, as the impact of the higher cost of living reins in spending. Retail Ireland estimates that each household will spend €978 more in December than they do in every other month. This adds up to around €5.39 billion…
The Governor of the Central Bank has said the European Central Bank will increase interest rates at its meeting next month but he had “an open mind” on what scale that should be. Gabriel Makhlouf was speaking at the publication of the Central Bank’s Financial Stability Report today. The Financial Stability Report is published twice…
Originally an American construct, Black Friday was ideal for retailers and consumers in the United States to kick off the busy Christmas shopping period. In Ireland, where Christmas retail campaigns now begin just after Halloween, adopting Black Friday as an aid to sales seemed the obvious thing to do and it is now a fixture…
The Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS), which will assist businesses with their energy costs during the winter months, will open for registrations tomorrow – Saturday 26 November. The €1.2 billion scheme, which will be administered by Revenue, received approval from the European Commission yesterday. Businesses will be able to use the online system to…
The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has said the Government’s budgetary strategy struck the “appropriate balance between protecting vulnerable households and avoiding inflation”. In its Fiscal Assessment Report published today, the budgetary watchdog also warns that if the Government wants to keep within its own spending rule in next year’s Budget, it will either have to…
The number of first time buyers being approved for a mortgage has dropped to its lowest level since 2019, new figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland show. The latest BPFI figures also reveal that the number of people switching mortgages continued to rise in October. Last month, a total of 5,349 mortgages were approved….
Total tax revenue collected by the Exchequer in 2021 was €93.3 billion, according to the Central Statistics Office. This was €15.9 billion more or 21% higher than in 2020. Today’s figures are contained in a new CSO publication, which is different to the figures published monthly by the Department of Finance. It includes a wider…
Wholesale electricity prices fell sharply last month and are back to levels not seen since August of last year, according to the latest Wholesale Price Index from the Central Statistics Office. The price of electricity charged to industrial users fell by 52% in October. This comes after a drop of 27% in electricity prices in…