Author: Patrick Mullane

High frequency data points to growth in Q4

Last week’s Q3 national accounts showed the robust position the Irish economy is in. The surge in GDP driven by exports in Q1 2025 did not fall back over the following two quarters, as many had expected, and this left GDP growth averaging 16% in the first three quarters of the year. Moreover, the domestic […]

Irish GDP continues to outperform

Irish GDP fell by just 0.3% in Q3 2025, leaving the annual increase at 10.8%. GDP surged in Q12025, driven by front running of tariffs and new pharmaceutical production facilities coming online, and it had been expected that GDP would fall back somewhat over the rest of 2025. However, multinational sector output and exports have […]

Dollar edging down

The euro advanced against the dollar last week and is back around $1.16, up about 1c from $1.15 at the start of last week. Helping the single currency is speculation that a peace deal for the Ukraine and Russia might be inching closer and not helping the dollar is news from President Trump that he […]

Quiet day on Thanksgiving

With US markets closed for Thanksgiving, markets took a breather and it was a quiet day overall. There was little data or news to move the needle for the major currencies. The euro was little changed – touching off $1.16 at times briefly – and remains at around $1.1580 currently. Similarly, the euro is little […]

Muted market reaction as UK budget puts off difficult decisions

There was some market volatility yesterday as the details of the UK budget were leaked early. This initially put sterling under a little pressure but, in the end, sterling actually gained somewhat once the full budget was revealed. Sterling is now trading at about 87.5p to the euro and above $1.32 against the dollar. The […]

UK Budget delays tax hikes but difficult questions unanswered

Today’s UK Budget put-off difficult tax increases until late-on in the life of the parliament. The plan to gradually reduce public sector borrowing to 1.9% of GDP by 2029/30 still relies on relatively optimistic assumptions on UK GDP growth and that the Labour government sticks to spending restraint in the run-up to the next general […]

Dollar on the back foot

Speculation that a Russia-Ukraine peace deal was advancing saw the euro gain sharply yesterday. The single currency rose 0.5% back towards $1.1580, having touched off $1.15 at the end of last week. Also not helping the dollar were rumours that close Trump ally and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett was now the frontrunner for […]

Dollar gains halted as euro steadies

The euro made up some ground against the dollar midday yesterday to touch off $1.1550, but retreated again later on. That left the euro slightly up on the day at around $1.1525 this morning. This halted the dollar’s advance which had gained about 0.9% last week. There was a limited amount of data to move […]

Dollar has a good week

The dollar advanced again on the euro on Friday to end a good week for the US currency. The dollar has gained to about $1.1520 to the euro this morning from over $1.1620 at the start of last week. The dollar also gained on sterling last week to around $1.31, appreciating about 1 cent over […]

Irish employment growth slows

Employment grew by 1.1% year-on-year (y-o-y) in Ireland in Q3 2025 taking the number employed to over 2.825m, a new record high. However, quarterly growth was very modest, at just 0.1%. This means that following solid jobs growth in Q1, employment has been more or less flat for the past two quarters. While there were […]