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World financial leaders are likely to agree tomorrow to cut the number of actions they will take this year to boost growth to only 5-10 priorities per country to make it easier to check if they are being done, European officials said.

The world’s 20 biggest developing and developed economies (G20) are meeting in Istanbul.

They agreed last year to launch measures to raise their collective gross domestic product growth by an additional 2 percentage points over the next five years above the level projected in 2013 and create millions of jobs.

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The Irish funds industry is well positioned to take advantage of global growth which is set to take total assets under management worldwide past some $100tn (€88tn) by 2020.

The next three years will present a range of opportunities for asset managers here and across the globe, but also create significant challenges for those not adequately prepared to take advantage of the changing landscape.

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Household debt levels reached an eight-year low towards the end of last year, figures from the Central Bank showed yesterday.

According to the regulator’s quarterly financial accounts data for the third quarter of 2014 household debt fell €1.9bn to €160.6bn, or €34,846 per capita. Household net worth meanwhile, rose 5.5% in the quarter, largely driven by increases in housing assets. Net worth stood at €574bn at the end of last September.

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A swath of changes to corporation tax in the European Commission’s pipeline topped the Taoiseach’s agenda when he met the president of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker officially in Brussels.

New rules that would force every country to make public the tax arrangements with larger companies, including multi nationals is due in March and later in the year the Commission is expected to consider relaunching the stalled common consolidated corporate tax proposal.

They will also consider the the OECD proposals on having companies publish where and how much tax they pay under the plan to tackle base erosion and profit shifting – BEPS.

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Ireland will continue its impeccable record of hitting its EU deficit targets this year and next – provided tax receipts make up for the cost of Irish Water if it has to be counted in the national budget.

The other unknowable as far as the European Commission’s economic forecast was concerned is the contribution to Ireland’s growth of contract manufacturing, much of it composed of US companies becoming Irish.

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Eircom is set to invest €18m in creating nearly 400 jobs over the coming five years in what will be the communications firm’s most significant recruitment programme for almost 30 years.

The money is being spent on new apprentice and graduate programmes aimed at enhancing the company’s skills base and building “an innovative, national communications network across Ireland”. In all, 375 places will be filled between this year and 2020.

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Why is it the ordinary taxpayer always take the hit?

I’m sure many of us often wonder what it is about Ireland that says the ordinary Joe and Josephine Soap must always take the hit when anything goes wrong.

Is it something in the water or something in the air or do our self-described betters think we are all a bunch of idiots?

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Ireland’s services sector expanded at close to its fastest pace in eight years in January, a survey showed on Wednesday, although the rapid growth in new orders slowed somewhat.

The Investec Purchasing Managers’ Index of activity in the services sector, which covers businesses from banks to hotels, came in at 62.5, just short of December’s 62.6 – the highest reading since February 2007.

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The positive momentum in the economy received a double boost yesterday with huge demand for the Government’s 30-year bond and better-than-expected exchequer returns.

The NTMA raised €4bn through a 30-year bond at a reported yield of 2.088%, with demand in the region of €11.2bn.

The agency has so far raised €8bn, which means it is already more than halfway to meeting its €15bn target for the year.

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The Central Bank has increased its forecast for Irish economic growth for last year and this year in its latest review of the economy.

The GDP estimate for 2014 has been raised to 5.1%, which is a 0.6% increase on the Central Bank’s previous forecast. GDP is said to grow by 3.7% this year and 3.8% next year.

However, Central Bank economist John Flynn said the 2014 GDP figure was artificially inflated by ‘contract manufacturing’ in the multinational sector.

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