Category: Weekly Round Up

Substantial fiscal consolidation a risk for UK and Sterling

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves faces a range of headwinds that will make it harder to meet her fiscal rule for a current budget balance by 2029/30; recent Labour government reversals on planned welfare cuts, likely downward revisions to the OBR’s projections for UK GDP growth, questionable plans for restrained spending from 2027 […]

Irish GDP data for Q2 2025 ahead of expectations

This week’s Irish GDP data saw growth in Q2 2025 revised up from -1% in the preliminary release, to a soft 0.2% gain. However, GDP was still up 17% in the year to Q2 2025. The message from the data is that the surge in exports and multinational sector output in early 2025 not only […]

EU/US trade statement provides some clarity for Ireland

Last week’s EU/US statement on the trade deal agreed in July provided a little more clarity, but left many questions unanswered. Crucially for Ireland, US pharmaceutical tariffs remain at zero, with the US accepting the 15% ‘all-inclusive’ rate on EU exports will apply as a ceiling, if tariffs are imposed following the current Department of […]

Irish employment at record high

Employment grew by 2.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) in Ireland in Q2 2025 taking the number employed to over 2.8m, a new record high. While quarterly growth was very modest, at just 0.1%, this followed a strong 1.1% quarterly increase in Q1. Job gains were broad based, though employment in 4 of the 14 sectors fell in […]

UK Labour Market Loosens Further, Q2 GDP Growth Exceeds Expectations

This week the ONS published labour market and GDP data for Q2. Unemployment came in at 4.7%, up from 4.5% in Q1, reflecting ongoing subdued jobs growth, while pay growth decelerated further. The GDP data surprised slightly on the upside – most analysts were expecting a quarterly gain of only 0.1% in Q2 while in […]

Spending on Bank of Ireland Credit/Debit Cards up 6.4% in July

This month’s Bank of Ireland credit/debit card data shows consumer spending expanding at a healthy pace of 6.4% year-on-year in July 2025, similar to May and June. Spending growth remains well above the rate of inflation, which came in at 1.7% in July. Growth was broad based across Retail, Services and Social sectors. Most other […]

Implications for Ireland of EU/US trade deal still unclear

European Commission and White House statements yesterday provided a little more clarity on the EU/US trade deal, but still leave many aspects uncertain. Key for Ireland is that pharmaceutical tariffs of 15% do not look set to apply immediately from August 1st, but rather will follow the conclusion of the US administrations’ Section 232 investigation […]

Housing completions bounce back to 16-year high

This morning’s CSO data show that there were 9,214 residential completions in Q2 2025, up 35% on the year. This brings completions to 32,717 over the past 12-months, the highest level since2009. The disappointing 30,200 out-turn in 2024 was primarily due to volatile, lumpy apartment completions figures, which bounced back in Q2. The bigger picture […]

The Art of the Deal

Time will soon start counting down to the August 1st self-imposed deadline for the EU & US to secure a trade deal. The stakes certainly seem high. Should the negotiations fail the US has threatened to impose 30% tariffs on Europe (10% currently), the EU preparing retaliatory measures hitting €94bn of goods imports and targeting […]

Spending on Bank of Ireland Credit/Debit cards up 5.7% in June

The latest Bank of Ireland credit/debit card data show spending was up 5.7% in June, still well ahead of CPI inflation at 1.8%, indicating substantial real price adjusted gains for Irish households. Clearly, there has been little impact from any Trump-tariff related uncertainty and the recent dip in consumer confidence. Holiday related spending was up […]