The move comes despite misgivings in Germany and elsewhere.

After cutting interest rates last month to what it said was “the lower bound”, the ECB left its main refinancing rate at 0.05pc yesterday.

President Mario Draghi said the ECB would begin to buy covered bonds, a form of secured debt created by pooling mortgages together, from banks in mid-October and that it will purchase asset-backed securities (ABS) – bundled loans …

Employment in the sector also grew for the 25th month in a row, according to the Investec Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI).

The index, which covers businesses from banks to hotels, rose to 62.5 in September from 62.4 in August.

The sector has now experienced over two years of successive expansion in business activity, said Investec’s chief economist Philip O’Sullivan.

The index has been above 60 for the past seven months …

Ireland will be by far the best performing Eurozone economy as the recovery here broadens and strengthens. according to Goodbody chief economist Dermot O’Leary. Growth will be 5.3pc this year and 4pc in 2015, he said in a new report.

He made the comment as new data from Investec shows manufacturing output and employment grew in September for a 16th straight month.

While the rate of growth slowed, Investec’s Philip …

Under the plan the loans of dozens of unrelated debtors will be bundled together into portfolios by Nama managers and sold as combined lots.

Yesterday the agency put €600m of Irish property assets including Facebook’s Dublin headquarters, shopping centres, hotels and apartments on the market in five portfolios.

Up to now, Nama has mainly sold very large portfolios tied to only one borrower, such as the €1.8bn Project Tower portfolio …

Research from the Economic and Social Research Institute to be published today says that following recent deleveraging which has occurred in the economy, credit demand over the coming years will grow in line with GDP growth and that the share of credit accounted for by the property sector will decline relative to other business sectors.

Overall projections suggest that credit stocks for non-financial corporations and SMEs will stabilise at a …

British investment firm Laidlaw Capital bought its second German offshore wind park project two weeks ago, following a similar landmark acquisition by Canadian energy group Northland Power.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has made offshore wind a priority in the country’s “Energiewende”, which moves Germany towards alternative energy sources after a decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022.

Germany needs at least €20bn to achieve its aim of expanding offshore …

Animal spirits in the property sector mean the agency’s employees are in demand with various property firms, while if they stay with Nama they face the prospect of working themselves out of a job over the next three to five years.

Unsurprisingly chief executive Brendan McDonagh and chairman Frank Daly have been looking at ways to retain key people without the political back lash that would be inevitable if already …

The Baggot Inn in Dublin city centre claimed to have sold the country’s first beverage, a bottle of Kopparberg cider, for 0.0093 Bitcoin last March.

In a statement, the pub’s management said a Bitcoin ATM on the premises had been removed, adding: “We regret to announce (that) due to ongoing issues regarding the legality of Bitcoin ATMs in the Republic of Ireland, we can no longer accept Bitcoin payments.”

A …

The commission is expected to publish its opening decision in the Apple case today, explaining why it reached the preliminary view that two tax deals agreed between the US company and the Irish government-in 1991 and 2007-amounted to illegal state aid, according to a report in the ‘Wall Street Journal’.

Apple will then have 30 days to respond to the EU’s decision, according to people familiar with the matter.

It …

It claimed suggestions that the country’s economy is operating at full capacity represents an “unduly pessimistic” view of growth prospects.

Institutions such as the European Commission argue that Ireland has one of the smallest so-called output gaps in Europe. An output gap is the difference between the actual output of an economy, and the output it could achieve when at its most efficient or at full capacity.

The Commission, by …