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15% of small and medium sized businesses in Ireland are considering laying off some staff when the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) comes to an end – due to rising costs and falling profitability. That is according to new research by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Grant Thornton. They surveyed 200 finance…

Consumer confidence suffered its second successive sharp monthly drop as concerns about living costs that hurt the macro economic outlook in March spread into a weakening of spending plans in April. The KBC Bank Ireland consumer sentiment index dropped to 57.7 from 67. This was an almost identical fall to that from February to March,…

New figures from the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation suggests that the sector continued to recover in March – traditionally the period that kick-starts the tourism season with the Saint Patrick’s Festival. The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation’s Tourism Dashboard is published in association with AIB and compares each month to the same month in 2019, the…

Oil prices rebounded this morning from sharp losses in the previous session as concerns about tighter supplies from Russia and Libya dominated, while industry data showed a drop in US crude inventories last week. Brent crude futures rose 66 cents, or 0.6%, to $107.91 a barrel in early trade. The front-month WTI crude futures contract,…

The International Monetary Fund has slashed its forecast for global economic growth by nearly a full percentage point, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine, and warning that inflation was now a “clear and present danger” for many countries. The war is expected to slow growth and further increase inflation, the IMF said in its latest World…

Parents will receive five days of unpaid leave to look after sick children under new legislation to be signed off at Cabinet today. Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman is bringing a draft of a new Work-Life Balance Bill aimed at providing more family friendly workplaces. This new bill will bring the European Union’s work-life balance…

The cost of supplying electricity to Irish homes is “wildly out of line” with the rest of Europe, and the temporary VAT reduction fails to address the underlying causes of high costs, the Irish Solar Energy Association (ISEA) has said. ISEA, which was established in 2013 to advance a policy and regulatory landscape promoting solar…

Debt accumulated by businesses and individuals worldwide could slow economic recoveries from the pandemic crisis, the International Monetary Fund has warned. Governments took exceptional measures to support their economies as Covid-19 spread two years ago, including rolling out debt repayment suspensions or offering large-scale loans. However these programmes resulted in higher debt levels for some…

Minister for Education Norma Foley will address primary school teachers in Killarney this morning in what will be her first in-person address to a teacher trade union conference. The teachers’ Easter conferences have been held online for the past two years, but this year they return to their traditional in-person format. Ms Foley will speak…

The Government has cut its forecast for growth in the economy by 2.25 percentage points to 4.25% as a result of higher inflation and the negative impact of the war in Ukraine. At Budget time, Modified Domestic Demand had been forecast to grow this year by 6.5%. Forecasts for inflation have also been increased to…