Irish house price inflation slowed from an annual rate of around 20% in the second half of 2015 to a 5%-6% range in the first half of last year. 

The EU looks to be leaving the door open for a deal that could avoid some of the major downsides of a ‘hard’ Brexit, writes Oliver Mangan

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Critical commentary about ‘leprechaun economics’ and ‘fake news’ is doing Ireland and its reputation no favours, writes Oliver Mangan

Last week’s meeting of the ECB Governing Council concluded with the key interest rates unchanged at –0.4% for the deposit rate and 0% for the key refi rate.

The past number of years have been characterised by a widespread loosening of monetary policy in many countries and a scaling back of rate-hike expectations in economies where policy tightening had been expected to commence. This is now changing.

There is mounting evidence of a strengthening of the global economy since last autumn.

There is an eerie calm about financial markets at present. Currency and bond markets are quite range bound, while world stock markets hit new record highs in the past week.

The UK economy grew by 0.6% for a third consecutive quarter in the final three months of 2016, continuing its impressive post-Brexit referendum vote performance.