Irish public sector pay excluding pensions exceeds comparable private sector pay by 10% for top jobs to up to 30% for other grades according to research published in the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in its Winter 2008 Quarterly Economic Commentary.

Seán FitzPatrick has resigned as Chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, following a continuing investigation of directors’ loans at the bank. Directors loans at September 30, 2008, amounted to €150 million.

The Federal Reserve has cut the federal funds rate and its short-term lending rate to banks to near zero, but those moves have done little to unlock credit markets. Conventional mortgage money and business loans remain too scarce, as regional banks, which are the arteries and capillaries of our credit system, remain short of loanable funds.

Ailing mall giant General Growth and a group of lenders agreed to extend a past-due $900 million loan until Feb. 12 after six of the banks used a pressure tactic on Citigroup to go along with the extension.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil.

Irish Economy: The Government today launched what it terms an economic recovery plan in Dublin Castle and a central focus is to establish a series of venture capital funds worth a total of €500 million to attract innovative US firms to the country and boost research and development activity here.

Bank of Ireland, today, announced it is taking another positive step to support First Time Buyers by announcing a market leading 1 year fixed rate of 2.95% (4.0% APR) specifically for First Time Buyers.

German businessman Franz Sedelmayer has finally begun to collect court-ordered compensation from Moscow — something few foreign investors have managed.

Between 2006 and 2007 Irish service exports, which are dominated by US multinationals,  increased by almost €8.6bn, while service imports increased by €4.7bn. The increased exports were mainly to European and Asian countries. Exports to European countries accounted for almost 70% of the total, with exports to UK and France rising to €14,466m and €4,052m respectively.

Irish Gross National Product (GNP) at constant prices was 4.9 per cent lower in the year to September 2008 compared with the third quarter of 2007. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was marginally higher (0.1 per cent) for the same period. The profits of foreign owned enterprises which in Q3 2008 were €1.0bl higher than a year earlier are included in GDP but excluded from GNP. This increase combined with other changes in net foreign income flows explains the large divergence between GDP and GNP growth rates, according to the CSO. The timing of the income flows can be variable on a quarterly basis.