Saturday, November 23, 2024

The week ahead in business: The UK budget, Central Bank figures on money and banking, and CSO report on ‘vital statistics’

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Expect much weeping and gnashing of teeth as she has had to take the proverbial “difficult decisions”.

After Labour won the British general election last June, Ms Reeves complained that the party had inherited the “worse set of circumstances since the Second World War” from the Tories.

She said there was a £22bn “black hole”.

Presumably we can expect a hefty increase in taxes, then? Yes, but not on “working people”, which Labour has promised to spare, or on Vat.

Irish interest will centre on what measures Ms Reeves announces to drive long-term investment in Britain, and specifically any incentives to venture capitalists, which are notoriously footloose and might well move across the border to Northern Ireland if the right tax break was on offer.

There might also be measures to attract data centres, a sector where Ireland is already starting to lose out.

Here, we await to see if this is the week Simon Harris’s Government updates its housing-supply forecasts.

The Taoiseach has promised these will be released before the general election, which is expected to be called on November 7.

On Thursday, the Central Bank will publish statistics on money and banking, including its own financial statement, and an update on where the gross national debt stood at the end of Q3.

For those who keep a worried eye on our debt pile, it stood at €235bn at the end of Q2, which amounts to about 57pc of GNP.

Also on Thursday, the Central Statistics Office will publish a report on “vital statistics”, which includes data on the average age of mothers, and the main causes of death.

The CSO will also have new statistics on retail sales and the Wholesale Price Index this week.

Companies due to report results include C&C, Lufthansa, Bank of Ireland and Smurfit Westrock.

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