Category: Syndicated

College students struggling to pay living expenses, survey finds

Nearly half of all college students say they struggle to afford living expenses, according to a survey carried out by the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) and youth website Spunout. The findings show that 88% worry about money, while over 40% stress about money all of the time. Finding and keeping a job, travel […]

Continue Reading

Ireland to reach pre-pandemic employment levels by 2023, Donohoe says

The Minister for Finance has said that forecasts now indicate the country will get back to pre-pandemic levels of employment and broader economic performance by around 2023, but he is increasingly hopeful progress could be quicker. Paschal Donohoe also said the country has made enormous progress with its economic and public health since March of […]

Continue Reading

Construction firms see further sharp rises in activity – Ulster Bank PMI

The construction sector reported another month of rapid growth in August, the latest Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers Index shows, as it continued to benefit from improvements in demand after the reopening of the sector. Ulster Bank noted that the rate of expansion did ease for the third consecutive month in August, but from what […]

Continue Reading

Economy performing ahead of expectations – Varadkar

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Leo Varadkar said today that the economy is “actually ahead of where we thought we would be”. Mr Varadkar said he still believes it is possible to get the public finances back on a sustainable footing without tax increases and cuts to spending. “I think I am even more convinced […]

Continue Reading

Are consumer prices going to keep on rising?

No sooner had the first Covid-19 vaccine jabs been administered when talk turned to the risk of price inflation accompanying an impending recovery in economies globally from the pandemic. It all started in the US where incoming President Joe Biden was keen to hit the ground running with a series of stimulus programmes amounting to […]

Continue Reading

Irish shoppers increase use of electronic payments

Irish consumers’ use of online and mobile payment methods has continued to increase despite the easing of restrictions on physical retail, according to Banking and Payments Federation Ireland. Meanwhile the move away from cash continued, with contactless payments hitting a new record in July. A new report by BPFI shows that the volume of online […]

Continue Reading

Inflation rate rises to near ten-year high in August – CSO

The annual rate of inflation rose by 2.8% in August, its biggest increase in almost ten years. The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show higher fuel costs was the primary driver of price increases. Prices have gradually increased over the past ten months, the longest stretch since 2007, according to the CSO. The […]

Continue Reading

ECB trims emergency support, but insists ‘no tapering’

The European Central Bank has today raised its forecast for economic growth in 2021, as the euro zone recovery gathers pace following the easing of many pandemic curbs. The euro zone economy is now expected to grow by 5% this year, up from 4.6% in the last forecast, and by 4.6% in 2022, slightly down […]

Continue Reading

Gender gap in graduates’ pay expectations – survey

Female students have lower salary expectations than their male counterparts across a number of sectors, according to research by Universum, which is part of IrishJobs.ie. The study found that male graduates had higher expectations for their starting salaries in all seven of the sectors surveyed, with some seeing considerably larger gaps than others. There was […]

Continue Reading

Economy to return to pre-Covid levels early next year – NTMA CEO

The chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, Conor O’Kelly, has told an audience of investors that the economy is set to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity early next year. Speaking at an event organised by the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, Mr O’Kelly said Ireland’s position coming out of the pandemic crisis “couldn’t […]

Continue Reading