Category: Weekly Round Up

Ireland is the most expensive country in the Euro Area

Recent data published by Eurostat showed that Ireland’s price level for consumer goods and services had risen to 42% higher than the EU average last year, and was the second most expensive in the entire EU, just behind Denmark (43%) and the highest in the Euro Area. While the most recent data shows that inflation […]

Irish house price inflation accelerates to 7.9% in April

Today’s news the Irish Residential Property Property Price Index (RPPI) rose by 0.4% in April, with the annual inflation rate accelerating to 7.9% confirms the housing market is heating up again. Still, this shouldn’t be a surprise given the lack of housing supply, but also that average earnings rose by 4.7% in the year to […]

Irish household savings rate picks up sharply in early 2024

New CSO data this week showed the Irish household savings ratio rose sharply to 14.7% in Q1 2024. This is one of the highest levels for the household savings ratio on record, only surpassed twice in the past 25 years, during the Covid19 pandemic and briefly in 2009,following the global financial crisis. These were both […]

Taking the temperature of the Irish housing market

MyHome data show homebuyers were paying 4.1% above the original asking price to secure a property in May. In Dublin, the premium over the asking price was 5.4%. This demonstrates housing market conditions in Ireland remain very tight, with robust demand driving intense competition for homes. In contrast, Zoopla reported the average UK residential property […]

ECB won’t be held back by the Federal Reserve

Given an ECB rate cut on June 6th is now seen as a near-certainty, attention will soon turn to how rapidly the ECB can cut rates over the next two years. One view has been the ECB will have limited scope because divergence from the Federal Reserve will place downward pressure on the euro. However, […]

UK CPI inflation data this week could sway market view on rates

Currently market expectations are split on whether the Bank of England will cut rates from 5.25% at the June 20th policy meeting. However, this week’s UK CPI release should show inflation in April falling close to, or even slightly below, the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) 2% target. Of course, this will reflect negative contributions from […]

Irish HICP inflation rate now amongst the weakest in the euro area

The news that Irish HICP inflation at 1.6% in April is now amongst the lowest in the euro area is welcome, but largely reflects that retail electricity and gas price cuts came later in Ireland than in other European countries. In contrast, services inflation rates of 4-5% point to the risks of bottlenecks and capacity […]

Irish household net worth hits fresh record high of €1.1trn

The news that Irish household net worth hit a fresh record high of €1.1trn at end-2023 illustrates the enormous improvement in finances over the past fifteen years since the global financial crisis. Although the Irish household savings rate fell to 10.9% in 2023, households still accumulated €15bn of financial assets, with little evidence the pressure […]

April Stability Programme Update Published

April’s Stability Programme Update (SPU), published this week, shows the Department of Finance still expect a substantial budget surplus of €8.6bn (2.8% of GNI*) in 2024, driven by a still robust outlook for the Irish economy. Crucially, the Department still believes the unexpected 25% fall in corporate tax revenues in Q1 2024 was a temporary […]

Ireland’s rapid pace of jobs growth continues into 2024

This week’s CSO data showing a 0.7% gain in employee numbers to 2.47 million, adds to the evidence the labour market continued to grow rapidly in early 2024. Remarkably, Irish employment is now 14% above pre-pandemic levels. This exceptional performance has been facilitated by net inward migration, although skills shortages and other bottlenecks (not least in […]