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The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for the EU and the Eurozone fell again in January, but less sharply than in the last three months of 2008. The Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the Eurozone fell again in January, though marginally so, and reached its lowest since January 1985.

Irish Economy 2009: News that the social partners led by trade union body ICTU and the employers’ group IBEC, agreed yesterday to begin detailed talks on the basis of a framework document that includes a commitment to finding spending cuts of €2 billion this year, is welcome. However, after the second period of monumental mismanagement of Ireland’s economy, in a generation, ICTU and IBEC shouldn’t just accept Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s so-called framework plan. It is a short-term band-aid fix and there is no evidence of plans for serious reform.

Cash bonuses paid by Wall Street firms to their New York City employees declined by 44 percent in 2008 to $18.4 billion, in response to record losses suffered by the securities industry, according to an estimate released today by the New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. DiNapoli noted that the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which infused billions of dollars into the financial system, helped prevent more institutions from failing. TARP placed restrictions on bonuses for top executives and many have voluntarily forgone bonuses, but it did not impose limitations for lower-level employees. The 2008 bonuses were the sixth-largest haul on record.

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

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed the Obama economic stimulus plan without a single Republican vote and 11 Democrat defections.

 Davos World Economic Forum 2009: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, blamed the U.S.-led financial system for the world’s recession, saying “excessive expansion of financial institutions in blind pursuit of profit,” a failure of government supervision of the financial sector, and an “unsustainable model of development, characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said: “I would only like to remind you that, only a year ago, from this rostrum, we heard the words of American representatives about the fundamental stability and cloudless prospects of the US economy. But today, the pride of Wall Street - the investment banks - have practically stopped existing.” Putin warned against State interference in the private sector.

World growth is forecast to fall to its lowest level since World War II, with financial markets remaining under stress and the global economy taking a sharp turn for the worse, sending both global output and trade plummeting, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) said in its latest assessment of the world economy.  It cut its forecast for global growth in 2009 to a slight 0.5 percent from a November estimate of 2.2 percent.

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Irish Economy 2009: Taoiseach Brian Cowen told the Dáil today that Ireland is facing the most difficult global economic conditions in 70 years. He said there is little point in looking back at how some of this might have been anticipated or avoided.