€300m BREMORE PORT DEAL AGREED - This morning a subsidiary of property group Treasury Holdings - REO - has signed a deal with the Drogheda Port company to covert its facility at Bremore into a €300m deep water port.
John Bruder, CEO of Treasury Holdings, says the location of Bremore is key to the whole project. Just a few kilometres north of Balbriggan, he says it is within 4km of the M1 motorway and is close to the main Dublin-Belfast rail line.
***
MARKETS TURMOIL HITTING ECONOMY - The domino effect of losses in the stock market continued overnight. More than 2% was wiped off shares in Asia when investors dumped banking stocks on fears about lending practices. The sell-off began on Wall Street after news of an investigation of the US mortgage industry by New York's attorney general. On Wall Street, shares plunged 2.6%. In Ireland €2.7 billion was wiped off the value of stocks yesterday as the market fell 3%.
All that turmoil in the markets is affecting the economy with the result that Bank of Ireland's chief economist Dan McLaughlin has cut back his forecast for economic growth for next year. He says that GDP growth will slow to 4% in 2008 from 5.3% this year. He predicts a slowing housing industry, but predicts that the rest of the economy should perform reasonably well.
Looking ahead to December's Budget, Dr McLaughlin says that Finance Minister Brian Cowen to unlikely to make any moves on stamp duty and says that the slowdown in the amount of houses being built is actually supportive of the industry as a whole.
He says that the Finance Minister has the scope to increase tax credits and widen tax bands in the Budget. He is unlikely to cut the top tax rate by a percentage point however.
***
MORNING BRIEFS - Oil remains high at $95 dollar a barrel this morning after reaching 98 dollars a barrel earlier this week. At the same time the euro is remaining at $1.46, which is giving our exporters headaches.
*** 500 jobs are being created by retailers by opening of the MacDonagh Junction city quarter in Kilkenny. The new shopping centre development will open later this morning.
*** Last week it emerged that Waterford Wedgwood is expected to cut 500 jobs in Ireland. Today its results show it made a pre-tax loss of €57m for the six months to the end of September. its results statement today also says that plans and consultations for root and branch restructuring are underway.
