Business and Finance News
Prescription drugs most expensive in US; Ireland a top spender
The US pays the highest prices for prescription drugs and while Pfizer, the US pharmaceutical firm, says it is moving its tax residency to Ireland because of high taxes in the US and in each of the past five years managed to declare losses there, never…
Irish manufacturing PMI dipped slightly in November
Irish manufacturing PMI activity dipped slightly in November with further sharp rises in new orders feeding through to higher output, employment and purchasing activity. Input costs continued to decrease in the latest survey period, but manufacturers r…
China’s manufacturing activity fell again in November; Japan’s rises
China’s manufacturing activity fell again in November while there a rise in the PMI (purchasing manager’s index) in Japan, stagnation in India and a fall in South Korea. China’s official PMI, which tracks big state enterprises, fell to 49.6 in November, down from the previous month’s reading of 49.8. A level below the 50-mark indicates contraction in the sector, while one above suggests growth.
World’s nations gather in Paris for climate change conference
The nations of the world gather on Monday in Paris to reach a new and universal climate change agreement, in the knowledge that they have already delivered an almost universal set of national responses to meet the long-term climate challenge before the conference even begins — there is of course a big difference between an aspiration and commitment. India is seen as an obstacle this time while China, which blocked a deal in Copenhagen in 2009, is now seen as positive as its citizens are increasingly concerned about air pollution. The conference is due to conclude on 11 Dec.
Irish fisheries industry and myth of EU stealing our fish
It is striking that the policy of protecting Irish industry, which Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil was implementing in 1933 coincided with the ending of Prohibition in the United States, but by the early 1960s, the Irish whiskey and fisheries industries were struggling and both were insignificant exporters. Today there is resentment in fishing communities about European Union (EU) quotas and conservation measures (including a requirement to land all fish caught) while there is also an enduring myth that other European countries are having a free fish lunch at Ireland’s expense.
EU farm numbers plunge 27% in decade; Ireland only riser
Farm numbers in the European Union plunged 27% in the period 2003-2013 according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency on Thursday. Ireland was the only EU28 member country that showed a rise in holdings.
Irish farmers and Ireland’s struggle with transparency
The resignation of the president of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) over revelations about the extraordinary pay, pensions and severance package for the general secretary of the lobbying organisation — effectively the chief administrator/ bureaucrat — highlights again the struggle in Ireland with providing transparency that has traditionally protected insiders.
UK chancellor gets boost from Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book
George Osborne, the UK chancellor, on Wednesday presented the Autumn Statement on the government’s fiscal plans to the House of Commons and he had been delivered two unexpected gifts to take the sting from what would typically have been dubbed a “humiliating climbdown” or “U-turn” by the Opposition and political commentators: 1) The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast before any changes, an unexpected cumulative reduction in net borrowing of £27bn up to 2020-21 compared with summer forecasts, due to a jump in tax receipts 2) John McDonnell, the Labour shadow chancellor, quoted from Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book — a popular 1960s appendage of well-off student revolutionaries in the West at a time when the Chinese Communist leader was engaged in a Cultural Revolution that brought chaos to the country. McDonnell flung his copy of Mao’s quotations across the Table of the House, literally handing Osborne an opportunity to make a joke at his expense.
Pfizer and Apple’s effective tax rates misleading fictions
Pfizer and Apple’s published US effective tax rates are fictions which give a false impression of the tax payments that they make to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Over a third Irish owner-occupiers without mortgages
Over a third of Irish households are owner-occupiers without mortgages compared with 27% in the UK, 8% in Sweden and the Netherlands; 56% in Italy; 47% in Spain and 82% in Bulgaria, according to data published Monday by Eurostat, the EU statistics office — the poorer the country the higher the ratio. Data for Ireland is from 2013 and for 26 other members of the EU28 it is from 2014.