admin, Author at Devine Accountants - Page 36 of 92

A sharp fall in the price of fuel and heating oil pulled down consumer prices in the eurozone as expected in February, but core inflation, which excludes the volatile energy component, edged higher, Eurostat data showed yesterday.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistical division, said consumer prices in the 19 countries sharing the euro currency rose by 0.6% on a month-on-month basis, making for a 0.3% year-on-year fall, less sharp that a 0.6% year-on-year decline evident in January.

The data confirms an earlier Eurostat estimate and is in line with economists’ forecasts.

 Read more

Thousands of people are expected to march in Frankfurt on Wednesday to protest against austerity policies they blame on the European Central Bank, as the ECB inaugurates its new high-rise headquarters.

The gathering follows protests in Cyprus outside a meeting of the ECB’s decision-making Governing Council and marks dissatisfaction with the powerful institution, which has sought to distance itself from political wrangling in the eurozone.

“The main reason for the protest is that the ECB is in the troika and the troika is responsible for the austerity policies that have pushed so many into poverty,” said Ulrich Wilken, one of the organizers of the ‘Blockupy’ protest which will take place near the ECB’s €1.3bn headquarters.

 Read more

A report on the health of the Irish banking system — commissioned by the financial regulator in 2008 and relied upon by taoiseach Brian Cowen to justify the bank guarantee — drastically underestimated the extent of losses that would be made.

The report, compiled by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), found that in its worst case scenario, Irish banks would lose €10.6bn at most.

The figure pales in comparison to the €64bn taxpayer-funded bailout the country’s banks eventually needed.

 Read more

Ireland stands to benefit more than any other nation from the ECB’s €1.1 trillion policy of quantitative easing, with hundreds of millions of euro potentially flowing through the economy by next year as a result.

The country will be a “top earner” from the ECB plan to kickstart growth in the eurozone, according to MEP and former junior minister Brian Hayes.

The QE programme, which began amid much European fanfare last Monday, has already seen the euro fall to 12-year lows against the dollar (€1 = $1.05).

 Read more

The number of mortgages drawn down rose 48pc in 2014, to more than 22,000, according to a new report by the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).

BPFI economist Ali Ugur said there will need to be pick-up in home completions if the expected demand for housing is to be met.

 Read more

European Central Bank executive board member Benoit Coeure cautioned that the region’s economic recovery is reversible and needs to be used as an opportunity by governments to boost growth potential.

“Be careful, the recovery is cyclical and led by low oil prices,” Mr Coeure said yesterday at a conference in Paris. Cheaper energy “may last for some time, but could also not last that long”, he said.

The remarks can be seen as a warning to governments that if they use ultra-low borrowing costs from the ECB’s bond-buying programme as an excuse to backslide on reforms, they’ll suffer. He was less bullish than ECB president Mario Draghi, who has said in the past week “our monetary-policy decisions have worked” and are “certainly” supporting the recovery.

 Read more

Ireland’s economic growth rate surged to a post-crisis high of 4.8% last year, the fastest rate in the EU, as data confirmed a stunning recovery from the devastating 2008 property crash.

After two years of near stagnation, higher exports and consumer spending lifted 2014 gross domestic product growth to almost four times the average 1.3% rate posted across the EU after most countries had published data.

It is the country’s highest growth rate since 2007, the final year of the Celtic Tiger boom, when the economy grew by 4.9%.

 Read more

The economy grew by 4.8% of GDP last year – the fastest growing economy in the European Union, according to preliminary figures from the Central Statistics Office.

GNP – which strips out the effect of multinational companies – grew by 5.2%.

Net exports grew by 10.5%, while domestic demand – a key driver of jobs growth – grew by 3.5%.

 Read more

The financial services sector has the potential to create up to 10,000 jobs over the next five years, according to a major strategy document released by the Government.

The ‘IFS 2020 — a Strategy for Ireland’s International Financial Services Sector 2015-2020’ was unveiled in Dublin yesterday by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Tánaiste Joan Burton.

The IFS 2020 paper looks to make Ireland a global leader in a number of key areas in the financial services sector.

 Read more

The amount of bonds eligible for the ECB to buy under its quantitative-easing programme is poised to shrink as the purchases risk pushing more yields below zero, according to Societe Generale.

The ECB, led by president Mario Draghi, began buying euro-area sovereign debt on Monday under the 19-month plan to inject €1.1tn into the region’s economy to spur growth.

While the ECB was said to have purchased debt with negative yields this week, including that of Germany and the Netherlands, its rules preclude buying securities yielding less than its deposit rate of minus 0.20%.

 Read more