Economic

Trump’s increasingly erratic and unpopular policies

The main data releases of note for the week ahead include US consumer prices for December, UK GDP and Irish employee payrolls for November. President Trump’s increasingly erratic...

US economy added just 12k net new jobs a month since April

US payrolls data for December released this afternoon point to a broadly stable labour market into the end of the year, aligning in broad terms with other recent data. However, the...

December’s exchequer returns due this week

The Irish Government published its long-delayed medium-term fiscal plan last month, aiming to slow current spending growth to 5.9% a year, down from more than 7.5% a year since 2019....

Property prices decelerated in October; monthly services prices fell in November

Ireland’s residential property prices decelerated on the month in October but remain up strongly by 7.3% in annual terms. While growth in the volume of transactions was relatively muted,...

Exchequer returns point to a strong economy into 2026

December’s exchequer returns saw another strong increase in corporation taxes, up €1bn on the same month last year. This is very similar to the increase seen in July and the results...

Entire 2025 surplus explained by November’s corporation tax

Exactly as we forecast five months ago, November’s corporation tax reached €10bn – equivalent to the entire projected surplus this year in last month’s Budget. Strong growth for...

Q3 survey-based employment at odds with hard-data payrolls

The latest Labour Force Survey (LFS) showed a marked slowdown in employment growth to 1.1% compared to Q3 2024. This is somewhat below our latest forecast and chimes with other...

A slowdown in economic growth into autumn is evident

October’s exchequer returns were once again characterised by strong corporation taxes and weaker tax receipts elsewhere, albeit income tax recovered somewhat from an especially...

UK inflation lands well below consensus in November

Annual UK inflation fell well below consensus expectations in November, reaching 3.2% compared to a 3.5% consensus figure. The declines were quite broadly based, and core inflation also...

Budget doubles fiscal headroom with backloaded fiscal drag

As expected, Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered another difficult UK Budget. However, the details of the Budget were unexpectedly leaked prior to her speech. Nonetheless, the UK bond...

Below-consensus inflation in September

While UK consumer price inflation remained high last month, it was softer than expected across a broad range of goods and services. This follows last week’s labour market data which...

UK economy tracking quite well despite Budget worries

Early Q3 indications point to a more resilient UK economy compared to last year, when Budget worries dragged activity lower. The government’s supply-side reforms could help to avoid...