German public pay rise a lesson in boosting consumer demand
The German government has agreed to a 3pc wage increase for some 2.1 million public sector workers this year and a 2.4pc pay rise next year, Verdi union leader Frank Bsirske said this week.
The agreement – one of the biggest pay hikes for public sector workers in years – takes effect retrospectively from March 1 and also includes a pay raise of at least €90 per month this year …
ECB: 'Over-spending on health biggest threat to economic recovery'
OVER-SPENDING on healthcare is posing the biggest threat to our economic recovery, the European Central Bank has warned.
Health Department expenditure – already €49m over budget three months into the year – needs to be reined in if our recovery is to stay on track, it said.
Ireland is also vulnerable to international trade issues – but health spending is the one area singled out as problematic in the ECB’s …
Data retention directive declared invalid by European Court of Justice
The European Court Of Justice has declared the data retention directive, which requires Irish mobile operators to log details about users’ locations, emails, text messages and internet use, to be invalid.
The court said that the directive “interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data”.
The court ruled this morning following a challenge to the directive …
Exchequer Returns to be revised as €100m incorrectly classified
THE Department of Finance is to issue revised Exchequer Returns for March after it discovered about €100m in collected tax was wrongly classified as VAT.
A department spokesman said the money should have gone into the income tax pot.
The discrepancy arose because one of the banks wrongly classified the tax, the spokesman said. The Central Bank notified the department of the error.
Irish economy to grow faster this year as recovery creates 50,000 jobs – IBEC
THE Irish economy will grow faster than previously expected as 50,000 jobs are created and consumer spending improves, business group IBEC said in a new report.
IBEC’s first quarterly report for 2014 also said that there are growing signs that recovery is ongoing as it revised up its GDP economic growth projections to 2.9pc as investment in the economy increases by 21.5pc – its earlier prediction was 15.5pc.
This growth …
US job growth too slow, warns IMF
nternational Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said job creation in the US is “not at potential”, as regulatory and policy uncertainties deter some companies from taking on staff.
In an interview with Fox News yesterday, Ms Lagarde also urged the European Central Bank to address the eurozone’s risk of low inflation and said Ukraine’s government must adopt some of the measures it has pledged to take before receiving IMF …
Businesses blame rising costs for increasing dissatisfaction
Satisfaction among businesses with the Government is falling thanks to rising costs in the banking sector and elsewhere, according to a survey of more than 1,000 companies by the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME).
“Recent modest improvements in job figures are noted, however the continuing creep of business costs and the lack of adequate bank credit have negatively impacted on the overall rating,” said ISME boss Mark Fielding. …
US jobs data lifts stocks, ECB comments keep euro down
The March U.S. non-farm payrolls showed 192,000 jobs were added in March in major test of the argument that the economic weakness of January and February was due to bad weather and the recovery of the world’s biggest economy was still on track.
Median forecasts had been for a rise of 200,000 in payrolls, though dealers in the run up to the numbers had been speculating about a number nearer …
Severe housing shortage means 80,0000 new homes needed in next five years
A solid pace of US jobs growth pushed up Wall Street stocks futures and the dollar on Friday, adding to pressure on the euro from signs that the European Central Bank (ECB) is warming to the once-taboo idea of aggressive asset buying.
The Housing Agency, a government advisory body, has projected the level of housing needed across the Republic in the next five years and the results are stark.
A …
NAMA selling Northern Ireland loan portfolio in biggest ever deal
NAMA had agreed the sale of its entire holding of Northern Ireland property loans.
US investor Cerberus Capital Management will buy the assets, which have a face value of £4.5bn (€5.4bn).
It is the biggest ever sale by state owned NAMA.
The price agreed has not been revealed.
The portfolio dubbed Project Eagle consists of loans made to Northern Ireland-based debtors but is secured by assets in Northern Ireland, the …