Business and Finance News
World Bank sees small rise in 2016 growth- BRICS pose risk
The World Bank in a report published in Washington DC on Wednesday, warns that a simultaneous slowdown in the leading emerging economies, would have a serious impact on global growth prospects. Bigger contractions than expected in Brazil and Russia and…
Average annual returns on Irish pension funds at 10% in 2015
December was a month of falling share prices but in 2015 average annual returns on Irish pension funds were up to 10%. The average managed fund return has been a very strong 13.8% per annum over the past three years. The five-year average return is a healthy 10.3% per annum. Irish group pension managed fund returns over the past ten years have been 4.7% per annum on average.
Irish export firms add 10,000 jobs – exporting jobs below 2008
Irish-owned exporting firms added a net 10,169 jobs in 2015 according to a survey that was carried out last October. However, jobs in exporting firms (including foreign-owned), tourism and transport, in September were below the level in mid-2008 based …
Global Economy 2016: Fragility in US and China dims optimism
Global Economy 2016: Poor manufacturing and construction data published in the US Monday which followed reports from China of a continuing shrinkage in factory activity, triggered sharp cuts in forecasts for US fourth quarter GDP (gross domestic produc…
Irish house prices up 3% in Dublin in 2015 – up 20%+ in other cities
Irish house prices rose by an average of 8.5% during 2015, according to the latest House Price Report released today by Daft.ie, the property web service. This national average hides a significant difference between Dublin, where prices rose by just 2.7%, and the rest of the country, where the average increase was 13.1%. The national average asking price in the final quarter of 2015 was €204,000, compared to €188,000 a year ago and €164,000 at its lowest point in early 2013. In the other main cities prices rose at least 20%.
CRH, Ryanair, BOI, Kerry account for 66% of value of Irish shares
The Irish Stock Exchange’s ISEQ index rose 30% in 2015 to close at 6,791.68 making Dublin one of Europe’s top stock market performers. However with 58 issues overall including ones of foreign origin, only four firms — CRH (its primary listing is in London), Ryanair, BOI (Bank of Ireland) and Kerry — accounted for 66% of market capitalisation.
China’s manufacturing shrinks, Japan, Korea expands, India skids
Two purchasing managers’ index (PMI) surveys show that China’s manufacturing contracted again in December while manufacturing activity in Japan and South Korea expanded but India’s manufacturing shrunk.
Kenny’s full-employment flip-flop fools Irish media again
Following the announcement in January 2015 by Enda Kenny, taoiseach, that a full-employment target would be brought forward to 2018, Finfacts reported that Kenny had used fiddled figures and the Department of the Taoiseach had subsequently effectively …
Irish environmental vandalism and Bandon flooding
The El Niño weather pattern not only has a seasonal name (from the 18th century Peruvian fisherman observed an irregular warm current that would appear around Christmas and they called it El Niño de Navidad, the “little Christmas boy” or “Christ child”), it links my current location in Kuala Lumpur with my hometown of Bandon, Ireland (there is a Bandon in the US state of Oregon which was founded by settlers from its Irish namesake). While extreme weather has been a factor in the increased frequency of flooding in Bandon, the town is also another Irish victim of common environmental vandalism, in particular during the Celtic Tiger bubble period.
Finfacts 2015 highlights: Irish, Europe, Global economy + innovation
As usual the year has been a mix of good and bad news with the climate change agreement signed by 195 nations in Paris this December, being a positive start to a rocky path to an “aggregate emission pathways consistent with holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C.” In Europe this year, the European Central Bank bond-buying program gave a moderate boost to the Euro Area economy in 2015 with the headline unemployment rate in October at 10.8% and the EU28 rate at 9.3% while Ireland’s rate was 8.9% (the broad rate was 19%) — the US rates in November were 5% and 9.9%.