“Over the coming months, the bite of energy, interest rate and other costs will begin to be felt by households, despite the supportive stance of Government in the recent budget,” Ibec said.
The higher-cost environment is already hitting consumption here with retail sales, excluding cars and bars, down more than 3 per cent in August. On the upside, the lobby group said the strength of the public finances meant Ireland was in a unique position in Europe with tax revenues growing rapidly, allowing the Government to engage in both higher spending and to run a significant budget surplus. Ibec’s report came as the latest exchequer figures from the Department of Finance show the Government collected almost €64 billion in taxes so far this year, 25 per cent up on last year.
The markets are expecting the European Central Bank to raise the interest rate to at least 3 per cent from the current rate of 2 per cent by the middle of 2023.
The cause is profligacy spending by government. ibec_irl is just talking about manifestations not cause. Probably as with the boxing, do as I say or no grant! BTW no concern about that from our media?