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An Bord Pleanála has refused developer Sean Dunne’s application for permission to develop on the Jurys Hotel/Berkeley Court hotel sites saying it would represent “gross overdevelopment” in the area. However, every significant Irish development triggers a huge reaction from NIMBIES (NIMBY - Not-in My-Backyard_Syndrome) and they invariably have a veto on high-rise developments, which results in urban sprawl and the most expensive housing in the world.

Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — decreased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to advance estimates released by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the third quarter, real GDP decreased 0.5 percent. The growth rate is the worst since 1982.

The 2008 year-end edition of the permanent tsb House Price Index - compiled in association with the ESRI - reveals that average house prices nationally declined by 9.1% in 2008 compared to a drop of 7.3% in 2007. If you take account of inflation during 2008 [4.1%], this is equivalent to a decline in real prices of 13.2% in the year.

The Central Bank said today that monthly changes in Irish residential mortgage lending in October and November were historically low. However, mortgages increased by €281 million in December, leaving the average monthly increase for the year of  just €676 million, compared with €1.4 billion in 2007. This resulted in the annual rate of increase in December fell to 5.8 per cent, the lowest annual rise since 1986.

The Eurozone (EA15) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 8.0% in December 2008, compared with 7.9% in November. It was 7.2% in December 2007. The EU27¹ unemployment rate was 7.4% in December 2008, compared with 7.3% in November³. It was 6.8% in December 2007. Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (2.7%) and Austria (3.9%), and the highest in Spain (14.4%) and Latvia (10.4%) and Ireland (8.2%).

Eurozone annual inflation tumbled to 1.1% in January 2009 according to a flash estimate issued by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. It was 1.6% in December 2008.

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Japanese industrial production fell a record 9.6% in December, while core annual inflation fell to 0.2% - - below November’s 1% increase and October’s 1.9% rise - -  as the economy endures a deep recession. Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) slumped in January.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.