When the financial crisis threatened to topple the global economy, my Russian friends took great delight in calling me from Moscow and sharing the bittersweet response that was making the rounds of a city that always laughs loudest when things go wrong: Everything Marx told us about communism was false, the gag went, but everything he told us about capitalism was true.

NEWS that the economy expanded 0.5% on a GDP basis and 1.1% on a GNP basis in the third quarter of the year compared to the second quarter is the latest piece of encouraging data published recently on our economy.

IRELAND is once again in the international media spotlight as concerns resurface about the scale of the banking, fiscal and economic problems facing the country. This has resulted in a rise in the spread between the rates for Irish debt over benchmark issuers such as Germany.

THE European Central Bank again left its official refinancing rate unchanged at 1% when the Governing Council met last week. This decision was totally as expected.

THE latest Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) report, which is for Q3 2008, shows the first fall in employment since 1991, with unemployment moving sharply higher.

THE European Central Bank cut official interest rates by 0.5% last Thursday, bringing the total reduction in rates in the eurozone to 1% in the past month.

TWO leading central banks, the ECB and the Bank of England, meet this week to discuss monetary policy.

OIL prices continue to make new highs. Having been propelled through the $100/barrel barrier in February, US light crude is trading above $115/barrel.

THE annual headline rate of inflation, as measured by the CPI, has averaged close to 5% year to date.

ECONOMIC news is once again putting the US dollar under pressure. Increased optimism regarding the outlook for the US economy saw the euro slip back below $1.30 in January.