Ireland told to cut deficit as Britain escapes sanction
Britain should get an extra two years to reduce its budget deficit, despite its failure to comply with a five-year-old decision to cut its government spending deficit.
Ireland is among the states told to continue on its current path, reducing both its debt and deficit, by the European Commission in its annual recommendations to member states.
On the day the Government announced extra measures to deal with the mortgage arrears …
ECB concerned about in-fighting in Greece
The ECB is increasingly concerned by a deteriorating relationship between the Greek government and the country’s central bank, according to sources,
Recent government comments targeting the Bank of Greece have been noted at the Frankfurt-based ECB, which is responsible for monitoring the legally- mandated independence of central banks in the EU. The ECB may issue formal warnings to the Greek government if the situation worsens, the sources said.
The government …
Only 10% of €70m renewable energy fund invested
Just 10% of the funding earmarked to help business transition to renewable energy has been invested in the last 12 months.
The €70m National Energy Efficiency Fund (NEEF) was launched last May by then-energy minister Pat Rabbitte to act as a catalyst to develop energy-efficient projects in the Irish market.
Despite being available for a year, just €7m has been invested in two deals with Louth County Council availing of …
Irish banks ‘must improve their capital levels’
Irish banks need to further strengthen and improve their capital levels given the risk of contagion across the eurozone banking sector, which remains as underestimated as it was prior to the financial crash of 2008.
New research has found that banks across Europe are as vulnerable to failing now as they were seven years ago, in the period directly preceding the banking collapse.
The most vulnerable banks to systemic risk …
Number of professional job openings at record level
The number of job opportunities for professionals reached a record level last month, as multinational and Irish employers stepped up recruitment in Dublin and other regions, according to a survey of top job vacancies.
There were 13,445 job openings available to professionals in April, up sharply from the 9,475 opportunities available a year earlier, with jobs in finance, human resources, IT and the supply chain sector leading the way, the …
Financial firm scales down its operations
Financial services company IFG is to continue to reduce its involvement in the Irish insurance market as it focuses more so on its UK operations.
The company says it continues to explore options to divest its interest in the Irish market which is part of its non-core business.
Its goal of divesting non-core parts of the business and building a new management team during 2014 as part of its repositioning …
Bank of England slow to raise interest rates
The Bank of England kept interest rates steady at a record low 0.5% yesterday, judging that the outlook for prices and wages is still too weak for it to raise the cost of borrowing despite solid growth prospects.
The bank issued no statement but governor Mark Carney will explain more tomorrow, when he presents a quarterly update to the central bank’s forecasts for growth and inflation.
Most economists do not …
Rising negative sentiment drives savings index lower
Rising negative sentiment towards savings drove the national savings index lower in April. The Nationwide UK (Ireland)/ESRI Savings Index which measures overall sentiment towards saving, fell to 114 last month.
The sub-index measuring the proportion of people who consider it to be a good time to put money away and whether government policy encourages people to save, fell three points, driving the overall index lower.
Commenting on the index, Nationwide …
Greece repays €750m early
Greece repaid €750m to the IMF a day early, just as eurozone finance ministers sounded upbeat on negotiations to complete changes to the country’s bailout programme.
A suggestion from the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, that he may hold a referendum on the revised austerity package and membership of the euro even got resigned assent from German’s Wolfgang Schäuble.
Greece needs to complete a detailed technical agreement with the EU, …
SMEs land €60m funding
More than 1,300 owners of small businesses have been allocated a combined €60m in funding from the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland approved by AIB since its launch in March.
Strong demand for the discounted credit has seen almost a third of AIB’s €200m fund distributed in just over two months.
In total, €800m worth of credit is to be made available to SMEs at discounted rates.