Business and Finance News

In 2014 roughly 10.9m immigrants lived in Germany. in a total population of 80.2m. This group includes all migrants who settled down in Germany in 1950 or later. Compared with 2011, their number increased by approximately 1m (+11%) — in a decade, Dest…

The scale of the economic challenges facing China is starkly illustrated by the quadrupling of total debt to US$28tn in the period from 2007 to mid-2014.  Fueled by property and shadow banking, China’s total debt has nearly quadrupled, rising to $28tn by mid-2014, from $7tn in 2007 according to McKinsey Global Institute (MGI).

“May you live in interesting times,”* is said to be a Chinese blessing or curse and we are today living through not only interesting times in economics and finance but unique ones in the history of commerce…”At a Parliamentary Committee hearing a few years ago I asserted, boldly, that global interest rates were at their lowest-ever levels. A wise colleague challenged me afterwards: “How do you know they weren’t lower in Babylonian times?” Several exhausted research assistants later I can report that, luckily, I was on safe ground. Interest rates appear to be lower than at any time in the past 5000 years.”

Ireland’s Budget 2016 is due to be announced on 13 Oct 2015 and the focus of the governing coalition is to win the next Irish general election that has to be held by 9 April 2016 — the Government has to call an election within 25 days (excludes St Patrick’s Day, bank holidays and Sundays) of the fifth anniversary of the first sitting of the 31st Dáil on 9 March 2011. Easter Sunday in 2016 will fall on 27 March, the day the Government intends to commemorate the 1916 Rising, which it would also hope would burnish its halo.

After seven lean years, the European banking industry’s recovery from the financial crisis is now in full swing. Profits are at their highest level since 2007, revenues are growing across the board (helped by favourable currency effects) and loan losse…

Switzerland: Industry lobby groups are calling on lawmakers to bolster business innovation as they debate corporate tax reforms aimed at retaining Switzerland’s status as a location for multinationals. Parliament is currently looking at a government recommendation to replace Switzerland’s current, and controversial, cantonal corporate tax system — that grants favourable rates for profits earned abroad — with patent boxes and tax breaks for innovation activity.

Last April 1st, the end of a three-decade milk production quota regime in the European Union was hailed by the Government as “a great day for the rural Ireland” with the potential for agriculture in Ireland to move forward into broad, sunlit uplands wi…

At 71%, the vast majority of the world’s population remained either poor or low income in 2011 and while the global middle class almost doubled from 7% in 2001 to 13% in the decade to 2011, when compared with the Western standard both the number and level of income are not as high as previously thought. The Washington DC-based Pew Research Center in a recent report said that nearly 700m people emerged from poverty between 2001 and 2011— however, most only barely, with many continuing to live a “low-income existence.”

Ireland has a poor patenting record despite the presence of significant units of big American companies — the Government says a) a large proportion of foreign-owned firms (54%) are not R&D active b) foreign-owned firms accounted for 66.6% of total R&D expenditure in 2012 c) 13% of foreign-owned firms (107 firms), each spending over €2m, accounted for 88% of R&D spending in the foreign-owned sector in 2012 — but significant research is not carried out in Ireland. The annual data on patenting from the Irish Patents Office is ignored by the media with the exception of Finfacts because the agency does not issue a press release to announce the publication of its annual report. This is rare for an Irish public agency and clearly reflects the desire of Richard Bruton, enterprise, jobs and innovation minister, to keep inconvenient news under wraps — some time in 2016, Irish voters will be asked to amend the Constitution to approve a Unitary Patent Court that will require the transfer of some Irish court powers.