Author: Practicenet

Economy off to strong start in 2020, services PMI shows

The country’s services sector grew at the fastest pace in seven months in January, a new survey today showed. This was the second survey this week to suggest the euro zone’s fastest-growing economy made a strong start to the year.  A slowdown in manufacturing activity in Ireland threatened to spread to the services sector as […]

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Euro zone factories still struggling but green shoots emerging – PMI

Euro zone factory activity contracted again in January but did so at its shallowest rate since mid-2019, according to a survey which suggested the worst may be over for the bloc’s battered manufacturing industry.  IHS Markit’s final manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to a nine-month high of 47.9 in January. This was just above a […]

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Businesses experiencing significant skills shortage

New research reveals that Irish businesses are experiencing the worst talent shortage since 2006, with three-quarters unable to fill vacant roles. The latest survey by the Manpower Group says the skills gap increased more than five times over the past decade, jumping from 5 per cent in 2009 to 27 per cent now. The survey […]

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Unemployment edges up in January – CSO

The unemployment rate rose slightly in January, according to the Central Statistics Office, but continues to fall on an annual basis. The seasonally-adjusted rate stood at 4.8% last month – up 0.1 percentage points compared to December. However it is 0.3 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in January 2019. Last month the seasonally-adjusted […]

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Lending to households rises for third year in a row – Central Bank

Lending to households grew for the third year in row last year, mainly on the back of growth in home mortgages, new figures from the Central Bank show today. The Central Bank said that household lending rose by 2.1%, or by €1.9 billion, in 2019. The annual growth rate in lending to buy a home […]

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Manufacturing grows for just second time in 8 months – PMI

Manufacturing activity grew for just the second time in eight months in January amid greater certainty around Brexit and signs that a slowdown in euro zone economic activity may be bottoming out. Six years of unbroken manufacturing growth came to an end in June as a slowdown in global trade and uncertainty over Britain’s departure […]

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Bank regulator launches toughest ever bank stress tests

The European Union’s banking watchdog has launched its toughest stress test of lenders to check on their resilience to very low interest rates, trade tensions and Britain failing to get an EU trade deal after Brexit. The European Banking Authority (EBA) said its fifth test since the aftermath of the financial crisis a decade ago, […]

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Household wealth soars by 80% since 2013 on rising property prices – CSO

Household wealth has recovered by over 80% since 2013, mainly due to the recovery in the property market.  The finding is contained in the Household Finance and Consumption Survey published by the Central Statistics Office today.    The survey also finds a wide disparity in wealth between the top 10% and bottom 10% of households.  There are 1.8 […]

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Euro zone GDP falls short of expectations, inflation picks up

Euro zone economic growth was slower than expected in the last three months of 2019, a first estimate showed today.  Meanwhile, inflation in January picked up in line with expectations thanks to a jump in prices of food, alcohol and tobacco and energy.  The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said gross domestic product in the […]

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Nearly 140 governments agree to launch rewrite of international tax rules

Nearly 140 governments have agreed to launch a rewrite of decades-old cross-border tax rules for the digital age over the coming months, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation said after talks this week in Paris.  The rise of Amazon, Facebook and Google has strained existing rules to breaking point because big tech companies can book profits in […]

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