EU heavyweights’ tax loopholes targeted
The EU stepped up a probe into tax loopholes for multinational companies, demanding details of specific agreements in 15 nations including euro-area heavyweights Germany, France and Italy.
Regulators also issued an ultimatum to Poland and Estonia for failing to hand over information about tax deals. The EU ordered them to fall in line within one month or face possible legal action at the European Court of Justice.
Margrethe Vestager, the …
EU seeks to push ahead with capital markets union
Stakeholders across the EU are very supportive of the new capital markets union being proposed by the European Commission, which they say will unlock capital for business and unlock growth.
As a result, the Commission is promising to move forward quickly with the necessary legislation including a package after the summer on securitisation with updated calibrations for Solvency II and Capital Requirements Regulation.
Jonathan Hill, the commissioner responsible for capital …
Home debt crisis remains enormous, warn experts
Central Bank figures showing a slowdown in the numbers entering so-called early arrears fails to capture the huge scale of the home debt crisis, debt experts have said.
The bank said yesterday that 104,693, or about one in seven of all the 757,175 home loan accounts in the State, were failing to make some kind of monthly payment in the first quarter of the year.
That total is down from …
Irish bonds and euro trade nervously
Volatility continued to hit the Irish bond market and the euro, as investors waited nervously for news on whether Greece and its creditors would fall short in negotiations over its repayments to the IMF.
However, analysts said the euro was likely in the longer term to weaken against sterling, good news for Irish-based exporters who have benefited from the rise of sterling, which makes their goods and services sold into …
Consumer sentiment stalls as recovery fails to boost spending
Ireland’s economic recovery is still not boosting consumers’ spending power, with rising accommodation costs and water charges among the elements weighing on confidence levels.
The latest consumer confidence index — jointly published by KBC Bank Ireland and economic think-tank, the ESRI — shows a reading of 98.5 points for May, largely unmoved from the 98.7 reading in April. The latest three-month reading shows a rise from 97.6 to 98.4 however, …
Ireland a ‘stand out’ in global digital development
Ireland is among the world’s elite in terms of digital development having consolidated its reputation as one of the key drivers of the global digital economy.
Along with the likes of New Zealand and Israel, Ireland has been designated a “stand out” country by a new study from the Harvard Business Review.
Countries that have shown high levels of digital development in the past and continue to remain on an …
Buoyant tax receipts reflect economy’s rapid growth
A buoyant set of exchequer figures for May confirm that the economy is growing rapidly. The Department of Finance figures showed that revenues from all the main tax headings rose significantly in the first five months of the year.
Overall, the Government collected tax revenues of over €17.28bn in the first five months to the end of May, up 10.9% in the year.
The Government collected €734m more in tax …
OECD cuts economic global forecast by 0.6%
The OECD has cut its global economic growth forecast for this year but says it expects lower oil prices to ensure a gradual recovery, even if weak investment remains a worry.
Growth is also being buoyed by ultra-supportive central bank policy in the big developed economies and in many places outside the US by a stronger dollar, which makes the exports of other currency zones relatively cheaper.
The Paris-based Organisation …
Pressure raises as troika to put deal to Greece
Greece’s creditors yesterday drafted the broad lines of an agreement to put to the leftist government in Athens in a bid to conclude four months of acrimonious negotiations and release aid before the cash-strapped country runs out of money.
The troika efforts to set out the terms for a cash-for-reforms deal came after the leaders of Germany and France held emergency talks with the institutions in Berlin on Monday to …
Inflation returns as food costs rise
The eurozone returned to inflation in May with a higher- than-expected increase in consumer prices after five months of falls and stagnation, due to rising food costs and the waning impact of cheap energy.
The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said yesterday that consumer prices in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 0.3% year-on-year last month after a flat reading in April, beating market expectations of a 0.2% increase.
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