Headline inflation in the Irish economy could double to 4.2 per cent in the coming months if there is a prolonged conflict in the Middle East, the Central Bank has warned, the Irish Times reported. In its latest quarterly bulletin, the regulator said the current spike in oil and gas prices would lead to lower growth and higher inflation and that lower-income households would be “disproportionately” impacted. The bank’s central projection, based on where oil and gas prices were on March 11th, sees inflation averaging 2.9 per cent this year.

The Supreme Court will consider a common clause in commercial loan agreements that allowed Bank of Ireland to raise interest rates in line with its increased lending costs in the wake of the financial crash, the Irish Times reported. In deciding the case is of significant public importance, a panel of three Supreme Court judges noted the interest variation clause had a “serious impact on borrowing and on the margins of commercial customers”.

Headline inflation in the Irish economy remained near 3 per cent in February but this was before the shock to energy prices triggered by US-Israel-led war in Iran, the Irish Times reported. Consumer prices rose by 2.7 per cent over the 12 months to February, unchanged from the previous month, as rising food and housing costs offset falls in the cost of transport and household furnishings.

More than two thirds of Irish companies operating in the UK plan to increase their workforce over the next 12 months, according to a survey by Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Times reported. The agency said that the finding revealed that its client companies are no longer just trading partners “but are deeply embedded, permanent contributors to the UK economy”. Enterprise Ireland companies which include Version 1, Fexco, Sisk Group, CWSI employ about 150,000 people in the UK while the market accounted for €10.5 billion in exports in 2024.

Prices in the Irish economy rose by an average 2.4 per cent in the 12 months to the end of February, according to a flash estimate for inflation published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Irish Times reported. The latest estimate of price growth comes at a pivotal moment for the global economy with conflict in the Middle East causing a sudden spike in energy prices.

There has been lots of talk in recent months about the state of the commercial property industry. Since the pandemic the vacancy rate for offices in Dublin has spiked, yet that tells only a part of the story, according to a commentary in the Irish Times. The latest survey from GeoDirectory, prepared by EY, gives us a snapshot of the market more broadly, and it isn’t a pretty one. The vacancy rate across all commercial properties in the country hit 14.6 per cent at the end of 2025, according to GeoDirectory’s latest report.

Now-bankrupt Celtic Tiger property developer Seán Dunne told the High Court on Wednesday he believed he may be the only “dual bankrupt” in the world, the Irish Times reported. He made the comment in a case in which he is representing himself in his challenge to the validity of the appointment of the Irish officials who oversaw and continue to oversee his bankruptcy estate. The businessman was adjudicated a bankrupt in the United States and in Ireland in 2013, with bank debts of hundreds of millions of euro. He remains a bankrupt in both jurisdictions.

A Circuit Court judge has refused to confirm the appointment of an examiner over three companies tied to KC Capital Property Group, the Irish Times reported. The developer is appealing the decision in the High Court. That will be heard next week. KC Capital is behind a nine-storey office block on Cuffe Street beside St Stephen’s Green, known as the Greenside Building, with the court hearing it has built up debts in excess of €55 million in the construction phase but just two months of work remain.