EXPORT GROWTH NOT AS ROBUST AS EARLIER PREDICTED - The Irish Exporters' Association has lowered its forecast for export growth this year after an unexpectedly weak three-month period in July, August and September. The association now expects Irish exports to grow by 5% this year, down from the 7% it forecast at the start of the year.
John Whelan, the Irish Exporters' Association chief executive, says the euro zone debt crisis and the Greek difficulties have undermined confidence in the world economy and have hit Irish exporters. He says that UK markets are also being affected by budget contractions there, while the US has yet to fully emerge from recession. Mr Whelan says the country's 'blockbuster' exports of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies have slowed as they are affected by governments' expenditure which is contracting. Computer hardware exports are also lower due to increased competition from lower prices economies. Agri-food exports continued to be a bright spot for exporters as the sector continued to see strong growth in the last three months.
Mr Whelan says the value of exports is affected by exchange rates, which were not too volatile during the last three months. While not totally happy with the euro-sterling exchange rate, he says there was no big jumps in rates.
The IEA chief executive noted that growth in the emerging markets is set to be the strongest this year and next and it is into these markets that we export the least. 80% of sales go to markets where growth is predicted to be slow. He says the industry needs Government assistance to expand in these markets and so get the country's export sector back on a strong growth path.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Ulster Bank has reported an overall operating loss of £219m sterling (€250m) for the three months to the end of September. This compares to a loss of £176m the same time last year. Its parent company Royal Bank of Scotland today reported pre-tax profits of £2 billion sterling in the three months to September 30. This compared to a loss of £1.6 billion the same time last year.
*** G20 leaders are continuing their talks today in Cannes, to try to find a sustainable solution to the euro zone debt crisis. Up for discussion are ways to increase the firepower of the International Monetary Fund - the hope is that increased resources would help the IMF to support struggling euro zone economies, like Greece.
*** The European Central Bank cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point yesterday. Its new president Mario Draghi announced the movie, taking the bank's benchmark rate to 1.25%, in the light of slow European growth which is expected to fall to near or below zero in the last three months of the year.
*** On the currency markets, the euro is trading at $1.38 and 86.22 pence sterling.
