Price discounting drove growth in all of the eurozone’s major economies in March, helping business activity increase at its fastest rate for nearly a year, a survey showed yesterday.

New orders came in at their fastest rate since May 2011 and the survey found that companies have now been cutting prices for three years, although not as sharply in March as before.

Nevertheless, the Markit survey provided some welcome news …

Price discounting drove growth in all of the eurozone’s major economies in March, helping business activity increase at its fastest rate for nearly a year, a survey showed yesterday.

New orders came in at their fastest rate since May 2011 and the survey found that companies have now been cutting prices for three years, although not as sharply in March as before.

Nevertheless, the Markit survey provided some welcome news …

Current forecasts are likely to see close to €4bn in savings achieved during 2015, which will bring the total reduction in repayments over the €10bn mark.

Restructured repayment agreements with the IMF, EU, and ECB — including the deal on promissory notes and, more recently, the early repayments of IMF loans — have reduced the burden on the country over the past three-and-a-half years.

These savings represent improvements in the …

The decade-long surge in foreign currency reserves held by the world’s central banks is coming to an end.

Global reserves declined to $11.6trn (€10.52trn) in March from a record $12.03trn last August, halting a five-fold increase that began in 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

While the drop may be overstated because the strengthening dollar reduced the value of other reserve currencies such as the euro, it still underlines …

Almost 50% of self-employed workers would see their business close within a year if they were unable to work due to illness or injury, a new survey estimates.

Research by Royal London on self-employed financial brokers throughout the country showed that of those that did not have income protection cover in place, almost half would expect their firm to cease trading while 48% also indicated that turnover would be cut …

House prices grew by almost 5% nationally in the first quarter of the year, but a return to spiralling double-digit hikes appears remote thanks to the introduction of new Central Bank mortgage lending restrictions.

The price rise seen across the country consigned a late-2014 slump to the history books as an aberration, with the market now said to be functioning better as a result of the new lending caps.

The country’s manufacturing sector expanded rapidly again last month with the weakness of the euro continuing to benefit the competitiveness of exporters to the UK, in particular.

New product ranges, rolled out at the beginning of the year, are also starting to drive improvements in manufacturers’ output as the headline purchasing managers’ index (PMI) figure reached 56.8.

Despite a slight decline from the 15-year high of 57.5 in February, the …

Changes to the Government’s microfinance support fund were yesterday welcomed, with the improvements tipped to open the scheme up to more businesses and improve awareness among SMEs.

Businesses looking to access loans of up to €25,000 from Microfinance Ireland (MFI) will no longer require a bank refusal before being considered, as part of the changes unveiled yesterday.

For companies refused bank credit, however, an automatic referral system from the bank …

The Central Bank has warned that the economy remains vulnerable to adverse shocks and said further financial consolidation will be needed to meet medium-term budgetary objectives.

Speaking yesterday at the publication of its latest quarterly economic outlook, Central Bank chief economist, Gabriel Fagan said that Ireland’s debt levels remain very high by international standards and that the economy would still be vulnerable to an adverse economic shock.

He said there …

Irish manufacturing firms registered a further strong improvement in operating conditions during March, according to the latest Investec Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), with the pace of job creation at levels not seen since 1998.

The manufacturing sector expanded in March after posting its fastest growth in 15 years in February. The index stood at 56.8 last month, down from 57.5 a month earlier but comfortably above the 50 mark …