Ireland

Average Irish national house prices fell 1.5% in August according to the latest edition of the permanent tsb / ESRI House Price Index, Finfacts reported. In the first eight months to end August 2009 national house prices have fallen by 10.1% which compares to a reduction of 6.0% in the same period in 2008. Measured over the 12 months (year on year) to August, national prices were down by 13.0%. This compares to a decline of 12.5% recorded in the 12 months to July 2009.

Ireland's government proposed buying property loans with a book value of €77 billion ($113 billion) from five struggling Irish banks Wednesday, but the country's finance minister said some may still need additional capital, The Wall Street Journal reported. The plan, aimed at restarting stalled lending, faced fierce opposition when it was unveiled by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan in a rowdy session of parliament Wednesday. It is likely to face weeks of debate.

Independent News & Media has issued a fiercely worded attack on its rebel shareholder Denis O'Brien, warning that his "personal antagonism" could scupper rescue talks with its lenders at a critical stage, The Guardian reported. In a combative statement issued to the London and Dublin stock markets late today in response to O'Brien's demand yesterday for a shareholder vote on INM's financial restructuring plan, the board effectively told him to put up or shut up.

The possible collapse of Liam Carroll’s €2.3 billion property empire will not derail the establishment of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), according to the Department of Finance, the Irish Times reported. However, banking sources said the opposite. They warn that any significant insolvency will jeopardise the valuation model on which Nama is based.

Ireland's high cost economy has priced itself out of the market in key business areas, and workers will have to take wage cuts of up to 15 per cent to regain competitiveness, according to the head of the country’s foreign investment promotion board, the Financial Times reported. Barry O’Leary, chief executive of the Industrial Development Authority, said Ireland would have to cut costs to win back investments in areas such as call centres, which are labour intensive but low paid.

Prices are falling faster in Ireland than anywhere else in the developed world. Now, beleaguered retailers face an even bigger strain as more shoppers head north, out of the country, for bargains. For years, shoppers have hopped the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. But recently, a deepening recession, complaints about a "rip-off republic," a weaker British pound and a wide gap in tax rates have dramatically increased the appeal of stores in Northern Ireland. To try to keep people like Ms.

Strains in pensions systems, in both private and public provision, threaten to turn the financial crisis of the past two years into a social crisis lasting for decades, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned on Tuesday. In its annual analysis of the health of pensions systems globally, the Paris-based organisation found private pension plans lost 23 per cent of their value last year, while higher unemployment “leaves little room for more generous public pensions”, the Financial Times reported.

Ireland’s Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan TD, today announced the Government’s agreement to the establishment of a single fully integrated regulatory institution, the Central Bank of Ireland Commission, Finfacts reported. This new structure will replace the current board structure of the Central Bank and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority to achieve the highest performance standards for the new organisation. Substantial additional staff has been promised.

The ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) says today that the Irish Economy will shrink 9.2 per cent in 2009, which will be the sharpest fall in economic growth experienced by an industrialised country since the Great Depression, Finfacts Ireland reported. The ESRI says employment in 2009 will be 187,300 lower than in 2008, on an annual average basis. The ESRI says the implications of the downturn for employment are highly negative. It expects employment in 2009 to be 187,300 lower than in 2008, on an annual average basis.

One of Australia's most extraordinary business stories of the past few decades is the spectacular rise and equally spectacular fall of the ABC Learning Group, analysis by The New Zealand Herald found. ABC began with one centre in Brisbane in 1988. By 2007 it had used hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers, shareholders and banks to grow into the world's second-biggest childcare operator with more than 2300 centres in Australia, the United States, Britain, and New Zealand. In 2007, it reported profits of more than $150 million.