Economic
Ireland’s labour market remained strong in Q4 2024
The latest official estimates of employment show continued strong growth in 2024. Despite a small decline in Q4, employment growth had been strong in Q3. Key trends for population and...
Residential property prices grew 8.5% in 2024
December 2024 data for residential property prices confirmed a full-year growth rate of 8.5% in 2024, in line with our latest forecast from five months ago. Into 2025, we expect a...
UK inflation set to increase in early 2025
In a busy week for data releases, UK wage and consumer price inflation data will be important for Bank Rate’s path. The Bank of England will look to balance competing forces of weak...
Trump’s reciprocal tariffs for the EU add to uncertainty
President Trump has announced plans for the US to impose sweeping tariffs on the EU from April in an escalation of trade tensions. Cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals have been...
Consumer spending enters 2025 on a strong footing
The Irish economy began 2025 in good shape. Tailwinds from strong labour demand have been helped along by lower interest rates and a decline in headline inflation, which remains the...
Expansionary Budgets add to a strong economy in 2024
The December Exchequer returns suggest strong economic activity in 2024, boosted by successive expansionary Budgets. Voted current and capital spending each grew faster than...
Transactions for new homes climb 26% in October
Residential property prices grew 9.7% in October, close to the double-digit rates seen in recent months. However, rapid increases in Q4 last year mean some reduction in headline growth...
Ireland’s Exchequer begins to receive back-taxes from Apple
While October is not a crucial month for the Irish Exchequer, volatility of recent years continued with a near-trebling of corporation tax. This was driven by the first arrival to the...
Services disinflation boosts the case for Bank Rate cuts in 2025
UK inflation declined marginally in December, helped by services price disinflation. This marks an improvement on recent months, especially for a subset of non-volatile services (excluding...
Invest, invest, invest: Labour’s plan to restore UK growth
Labour’s first Budget since 2010 was delivered this afternoon by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Higher investment has been facilitated by a new fiscal rule targeting a broader measure of...
Grounds for optimism about the UK economy in H2 2024
The UK economy was flat in June and grew 0.6% in Q2, in line with consensus forecasts. However, we believe there are grounds for optimism heading into the second half of the year....
UK services inflation slows in July
UK inflation was lower than expected in July, driven by slower services inflation, which grew 5.2% in year-on-year (yoy) terms. This supports the view that disinflation is progressing and...
