Author: splash

Euro zone banks tightened firms’ access to credit last quarter and expect further tightening in the first three months of 2025, a European Central Bank survey showed today, reinforcing the case for more interest rate cuts as the economy slows. Lending growth has been broadly stagnant for most of 2024 as the long-awaited economic recovery […]

The share of Irish job postings on hiring platform Indeed offering remote or hybrid work rose to a record high at the end of December 2024. Indeed’s Jobs & Hiring Trends Report found that 17.5% of posting mentioned remote or hybrid, a level that is more than four times that recorded prior to the Covid […]

New research from the Central Bank shows that the total value of fraudulent payments rose by 26% in 2023, increasing to €126m from €100m in 2022. But today’s research also reveals that the rate of fraud in Ireland as a share of all transactions is low – by value and by volume the rates are […]

Technology Ireland, the Ibec group representing the tech sector, has called for the appointment of a Minister of State for Digital Delivery. Based in the Department of an Taoiseach, the new role would have interdepartmental responsibility and would be tasked with overseeing digital policies and programmes. It is contained in Technology Ireland’s Policy Priorities Roadmap […]

Widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in Irish business remains low at just 6%, according to new research. PwC’s GenerativeAI (GenAI) Irish Business Leaders’ survey shows that 67% of respondents confirmed that they are either at the testing or partial implementation stages of AI adoption, up from 47% in June 2024. 86% of Irish business […]

A total of 30,330 homes were built in 2024, a decrease of 6.7% on 2023, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office. The latest figures from the CSO show the number of apartments completed in 2024 was 8,763 – a drop of 24% on the previous year. The number of single dwellings built was […]

The Irish property investment market is set to record over €3bn of transactions in 2025, according to commercial property specialists CBRE. Its latest report ‘Outlook 2025’ makes a number of predictions for each sector of the Irish property market in the year ahead. Last year, the market recorded over €2.4 billion of transactions, and CBRE […]

The UK Business Secretary has left the door open to joining a tariff-free trading scheme with Europe following a meeting with the EU trade commissioner in Davos. Jonathan Reynolds’ meeting with Maros Sefcovic came after the trade commissioner suggested Britain could join the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM), which allows for tariff-free trade of goods across Europe, […]

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that wholesale electricity prices fell by 6.2% in the month to December but were 53.9% higher compared to December 2023. The CSO said that wholesale electricity prices remain 64.7% lower than the peak that occurred in August 2022. The annual average price of wholesale electricity in 2024 […]

Property prices rose by 9.4% in the 12-month period to last November, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. The figures indicate a slight moderation in the pace of acceleration, but prices are still increasing and are 16% above their peak during reached during property boom in 2007. The rate of increase […]