COUNTRY'S REPUTATION ABROAD DAMAGED BY POLITICAL ROWS - The general director of employers group IBEC says the recent political happenings here are doing a lot of damage to the country's reputation abroad.
Danny McCoy says the country's confidence is being badly damaged in the eyes of international investors and on bond markets. The political rows are also badly affecting domestic confidence, he adds. He says that political uncertainty does not help when you are trying to sell a country as a stable environment for investment and the recent behaviour of the politicians is unbefitting for a struggling economy. He says the fact that the Government can not get its act together is embarrassing.
Mc McCoy also warns that what happens next has to be seen as a sensible outcome. He says the economy can't be kicked about as a populist football for the next month as the electioneering starts. He says that politicians will be forced to have a view on bondholders and points out that Ireland is the first country to have an election since the euro crisis and so its outcome will be closely watched throughout Europe. He says the 'knee-jerk' reaction of burning bond-holders should be avoided.
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BUSINESS BRIEFS - Toyota ended 2010 as world's top car maker despite the recalls that damaged its reputation. The Japanese group also remained the world's biggest car maker, with the latest figure beating the 8.39 million vehicles sold by General Motors in 2010. Toyota's global sales rose 8% on-year to 8.418 million vehicles, beating the company's own expectation of 8.37 million units.
*** Greencore says it still believes that a merger with Northern Foods to create Essenta Foods represents a 'compelling opportunity' for value creation for both companies. On Friday, Northern Foods said it had withdrawn its support for a merger with Greencore preferring instead a cash offer from businessman Ranjit Boparan, the man behind Harry Ramsden and chicken entrepreneur, in a deal valuing Northern Foods at £342m. Greencore says it will consider its options and as part of this process intends to seek the views of both Greencore and Northern Foods shareholders.
*** This week will see AIB delist from the main market Irish Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange at the instruction of the High Court in the days before Christmas. It will no longer be part of the Main Securities Market but instead it will be traded on the Enterprise Securities Market, set up in 2005 by the Irish Stock Exchange for smaller companies. This morning the once mighty bank is worth €290m and accounts for just 0.6% of the value of the Irish stock exchange.
*** The US Federal Reserve meets this week and on Wednesday will give the world an assessment of the pace of recovery in the world's largest economy where they are printing money and the unemployment rate is falling.
*** The French Economy Minister, Christine Lagarde, said euro zone bonds should only be considered once greater fiscal and economic integration had been achieved. Euro bonds had been pushed by Jean-Claude Juncker and the Italians but rejected by Germany because it would push up that country's borrowing costs.
*** On the currency markets, the euro is worth $1.36 and 85.21 pence sterling.
