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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

The European Central Bank believes current interest rate levels are robust enough in “managing shocks”, minutes of its September meeting showed today, fuelling expectations of no further cuts for now. The ECB kept its key rate steady at 2% for a second meeting in a row last month, following several reductions, with inflation having settled

Gold raced past $4,000 an ounce for the first time today as investors piled into a historic rally in the safe-haven asset to hedge against global economic and geopolitical uncertainties, while also betting on US interest rate cuts. Spot gold was up 1.3% at $4,034.73 per ounce today, while US gold futures for December delivery

New figures from the Central Bank show that the average interest rate on new Irish mortgages at the end of August was 3.58%, down two basis points from July and down 53 basis points from the same time last year. This compares to the euro area average of 3.36%. At the end of August, Ireland

Google has announced the rollout of its AI mode in Ireland. The company has described the new tool as its most powerful AI search experience with more advanced reasoning and multimodality. From today, AI mode will appear as a tab on the search results page and in the Google app for Android and iOS. Google

Some Budget measures announced in the Dáil yesterday came into effect at midnight. Yesterday evening, TDs voted to reduce the VAT rate on the sale of completed apartments to 9% from 13.5%. Also from midnight, around two-and-a-half cent has been added to the cost of a litre of petrol and diesel, while tobacco products have

This Budget has a lot of significant measures aimed at addressing the housing crisis. The largest step will be reducing the VAT on sale of apartments from 13.5% to 9%. The idea is that it would kick start stalled projects which have received planning but have not proceeded because they are not currently financially viable.

There will be no one-off energy credits next year while increases in carbon tax will add around 2.5c to the cost of a litre of motor fuels from tomorrow. Between April 2022 and February 2025, Irish households received nine credits to their electricity bills, worth €1,500 and costing the State almost €3bn. However, as expected,

A record level of total funding of €27.4bn will be allocated to the Department of Health for 2026. The overall health budget next year will be over €27.3bn, which includes current and capital spending. It represents an increase of €1.5bn or 6.2%. Day to day spending will be over €25.7bn – an increase of 5%

The Government has described Budget 2026 as “sensible” and one which will “protect jobs and protect growth” in Ireland given an uncertain global economy. But some Opposition members have described it as “very disappointing”, with “ordinary people left in the cold” given a lack of a distinct cost-of-living package and no changes to personal income