Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, on Thursday welcomed with reservations, a proposed €11billion stimulus investment plan, launched by Fine Gael, which the main Irish Opposition party claims would create 100,000 jobs within five years and generate €2.5 billion in extra labour taxes.
Commercial real-estate loans are souring at an accelerating pace, threatening to exceed the commercial downturn of the early 1990s.
Denmark and Sweden once again lead the rankings of The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009, released today by the World Economic Forum. They are followed by the United States which is up one position, thus confirming its pre-eminence in networked readiness in the current times of economic slowdown. Singapore (4), Switzerland (5) and the other Nordic countries together with the Netherlands and Canada complete the top 10. The Report underlines that good education fundamentals and high levels of technological readiness and innovation are essential engines of growth needed to overcome the current economic crisis. Ireland gets a 23rd rank, the same level as in the 2007/2008 report.
Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil: Irish tax revenue to fall to €34 billion - - down 16% on 2008; Irish shares rise; FTI Consulting advises “clearing house” for Irish distressed bank debt.
Irish average national house prices fell by 0.8% in February 2009, according to the latest edition of the permanent tsb / ESRI House Price Index. This compares to reductions in January (-1.4%), December 2008 (-0.9%) and November 2008 (-0.5%). Measuring the rate of growth in the 12 months (year on year) to February, national prices were down by 9.7%. This compares to a decline of 9.8% recorded in the 12 months to January 2009. In the first two months of 2009 national house prices have fallen by 2.1% which compares to a reduction of 1.5% in the same period in 2008.
Irish Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at constant prices was 7.5 per cent lower in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the fourth quarter of 2007. Gross National Product (GNP) was 6.7 per cent lower for the same period. For the year as a whole GDP fell 2.3 per cent in volume terms while GNP fell 3.1 per cent. The profits of foreign owned enterprises are excluded from GNP. GNP is also affected by other income flows between residents and non residents and the timing of the income flows can be variable on a quarterly basis. This can lead to significant differences in the rate of growth in the quarterly GNP and GDP, according to the CSO. The Irish economy is down to the size it was 3 years ago.
US real gross domestic product (GDP) — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — fell at an annual rate of 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to final estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP decreased 0.5 percent. Corporate profits fell 16.5%, the largest decline since the fourth quarter of 1953.
KBC Ireland, the Irish subsidiary of Belgian bank KBC, has reported after-tax profits of €103m for last year, a drop of 25% from 2007. The bank today reported a €55m charge for bad loans, while costs linked to financial market turbulence knocked €35m off profits.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD today announced that PayPal, the payment system unit of online auction giant eBay, plans an investment of more than €15 million, supported by IDA Ireland, in what is termed a European Centre for Operational Excellence, which will result in the creation of up to 35 highly-skilled jobs in Operational Excellence and Business Analytics at its facility in Ballycoolin, Blanchardstown, Dublin.
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