IRELAND LESS TAXING FOR BUSINESSES - The World Bank says that Ireland is the easiest country in Europe in which to pay business taxes.
It found that Ireland has the second lowest overall tax rate in Europe at 26.5%. The lowest is Luxembourg at 21% and the highest is Italy, where overall business taxes amount to 68%.
In a survey which carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ireland was ranked sixth in the world for ease of taxation.
Colm Kelly, a senior tax partner with PwC Ireland, said a mix of factors were taken into account in the survey. These included the low tax rate, the number of taxes businesses have to pay and the ease with which businesses can pay those taxes.
He said there was generally a higher level of compliance with tax obligations where taxes were easier to pay administratively.
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NEWS IN BRIEF AND MARKETS - Unemployment, a crippled property market and limping banks will stagnate growth in the US for the next decade, according to a group of leading economists.
Most of the speakers at the American Economic Association's yearly gathering yesterday predicted annual growth of just 2% for the next 10 years.
That is a downbeat forecast, considering most recessions end with a period of high growth. One of the other big problems is the high level of consumer debt. American consumers collectively owe $2.5 trillion or nearly one-fifth of total yearly spending in the US economy.
Britain's Office of Fair Trading has labelled Ryanair 'puerile and almost childish' in the way it adds charges for customers using certain bank cards.
The automatic addition of insurance to flights is also described as a 'legal grey area' in a newspaper interview with the watchdog's chief executive John Fingleton, who previously headed Ireland's Competition Authority.
On the currency markets, the euro buys $1.4281 and 88.81p while in Japan the Nikkei is 1% higher.
