Business and Finance News

A further solid improvement in business conditions in the Irish manufacturing sector was recorded in October according to a monthly survey. However, the data are not reliable as official figures show a 30% surge in production in the 12 months to June — a jump of almost a third in activity suggests the booking of overseas production in Ireland for tax purposes, which is termed “contract manufacturing.”

In 1849 with $2,500 borrowed from Charles Pfizer’s father, cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, young entrepreneurs from Germany, opened Charles Pfizer & Company as a fine-chemicals business. It began in a modest red-brick building in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York and by 2014 through organic growth and acquisition, it had the second highest revenues for a pharmaceutical company in the world. Now Now Ian Read, its Scottish-born chairman and CEO, wants the group to become Irish for tax purposes. If it succeeds, it will further distort Ireland’s national accounts.

Euro Area annual inflation is expected to be 0.0% in October 2015, up from -0.1% in September 2015, according to a flash estimate from Eurostat. The EU statistics office also reported today that the jobless level rose 131,000 to 17.3m in September, in …

Irish Economy: In 1986 Sir Robert Armstrong, UK Cabinet Secretary, used a euphemism for lying that had its origin in 1796 — “economical with the truth” — during a court case in Australia on the British government’s request for a ban on a book by a former spy. The admission by Enda Kenny, taoiseach, this week that his past claims that Patrick Honohan, Central Bank governor, had suggested on a Wednesday in some undated week that the Army could be required to protect banks and ATM machines, from expected mobs in the streets, were not correct, appears to be an admission of a lie rather than tailoring the truth. It also highlights the corrosive impact of political spin.

Real — inflation-adjusted — property prices in many global cities have doubled since 1998. On average, they are higher than before the 2007-08 financial crisis. The risk of a residential property bubble is most distinct in London and Hong Kong.

US gross domestic product (GDP) economic growth fell sharply in the third quarter as firms’ inventories fell and the pace of spending by consumers, businesses and governments all decelerated. Today’s estimate is the first of three and also in the third…

Joan Burton, tánaiste and minister of social protection, in an op-ed piece in the Irish Times today writes on “why public sector workers deserve a pay rise.” We are not disputing that point in this analysis, but in support of her case Burton appears to be unaware that official data show that pay at Irish micro and small firms fell in the year to June 2015.

Modern Spain dates from the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1715 and on Tuesday the government of the once independent Catalonia announced a plan for secession to end what its sees as 300 years of colonial rule from Madrid.

Doing Business 2016: The latest World Bank flagship assessment of the ease of doing business in 189 economies puts Singapore on top again while Ireland slipped to a 17 rank from 13 last year. In the global ranking stakes, joining Singapore on the list …

The European Central Bank last week signalled more quantitative easing (QE) or bond-buying from December. The Bank of Japan will hold a policy board meeting on this Friday amid growing speculation over whether it will surprise markets with additional c…