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Residential property prices grew by 7.4% in the year to August, the lowest rate since March last year and unchanged from the year to July, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show today. The CSO said that property prices outside of Dublin were 9.2% higher in August of this year compared to a year…

ICS Mortgages is to reduce the interest rates and fees across its Housing Bridging Loan products. From October 16, ICS said the rate on its housing bridging loans will reduce to 10% from 12% a year. Its arrangement fee will fall to 1% from 2%, while its exit fee will be reduced to 0% from…

Building activity, including residential construction, has declined for a fifth month in a row, a monthly survey by AIB has shown. The bank’s sampling of purchasing managers in the construction sector indicated there were falls across housing, commercial and civil engineering. The survey said that a continuing downturn in the sector had gathered pace in…

Gold prices climbed to a record high above $4,100 today on increased US Federal Reserve rate cut prospects, while resurgent US-China trade woes boosted safe-haven bets, including those for silver, which also reached an all-time peak. Spot gold rose 1.7% to a record high of $4,179.48 per ounce, early this morning. US gold futures for…

Some of the world’s biggest tech firms have soared in value over the last year. As AI evolves at pace, there are hopes that it will improve lives in ways that people could never have imagined a decade ago – in sectors as diverse as healthcare, employment and scientific discovery. OpenAI is now worth US$500…

US President Donald Trump revived the trade war against China yesterday, ending an uneasy truce between the two largest economies with promises to sharply hike tariffs in a reprisal against China curbing its critical mineral exports. The US president unveiled additional levies of 100% on China’s US-bound exports, along with new export controls on “any…

On Friday, Lidl reduced the prices of its own-brand milk range, claiming to be the first grocery retailer in Ireland to cut the price of the product since 2023. It’s not a major reduction, one litre of Lidl’s milk is now 6c cheaper, with the price of a two litre container coming down by 10c.…

Analysis: A growing segment of the corporate workforce know their jobs make no real contribution and that what they do each day is meaningless There is an old Soviet joke that conveys the cynicism that helped sink their economy: “they pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work”. In a recent article, Alex McCann…

The measures announced in Budget 2026 will result in small income losses next year, according to an analysis from the Economic and Social and Research Institute. In its post-Budget briefing, the ESRI said the losses will average 2% of household disposable income. The organisation said the withdrawal of temporary cost-of-living measures is “responsible for much…

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that consumer price inflation rose to an 18-month high of 2.7% in September, up from 2% the previous month. That marks the highest that inflation has been since March 2024 when the rate of inflation was 2.9%. The CSO said the most significant increases in the 12…