The latest CSO data on the Irish labour market show continuing strong job growth, with total employment likely to surpass its pre-crash peak later this year.

A key development in currency markets in 2017 was the strengthening of the euro and weakening of the dollar, writes Oliver Mangan

The economic prospects for Ireland’s main export market, the eurozone, look better now than at any time in the past decade or more, writes Oliver Mangan.

The past number of years have seen a stronger than expected recovery by the Irish economy. This has been led by robust export growth, but there has also been a strong rebound in domestic demand, including business investment, construction and consumer spending.

One of the developments on financial markets that has caught much attention this year has been the flattening of the slope of the US yield curve.

A belief that inflation will stay subdued despite the pick-up in global growth, is driving market expectations that interest rates will remain very low for the rest of this decade.

The euro has been on a steady upward path against the dollar for much of this year as it climbed from $1.04 in early January to around the $1.20 level by August, writes Oliver Mangan.

It is ironic that just as the UK is preparing to leave the EU, the eurozone has become the fastest-growing economic region in the developed world, writes AIB chief economist Oliver Mangan

THE long period of monetary easing appears to be coming to an end, apart from in Japan.

The June 2016 vote for Brexit has slowed down the UK economy in the first half of 2017. GDP rose 0.2% in the first quarter and 0.3% in the second quarter, down from 0.5% and 0.7% in the final two-quarters of last year, Oliver Mangan.