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Makhlouf warns banks; turbo-charged tax receipts; and Tayto refreshes Intersnack

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Central Bank Gabriel Makhlouf is less than happy with progress in switching customers from the departing Ulster and KBC banks: Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Thu Nov 3 2022 - 06:47

Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf signalled his growing disquiet at the customer migration to new banks from Ulster Bank and KBC as they look to leave the market. With six in 10 customers reporting difficulties in the switching process, he called on all sides to up their game and warned the regulator could yet block the two banks’ departure, writes Ian Curran. Customers will not be left stranded, he insisted.

Turbo-charged corporation tax receipts, alongside strong growth in income tax and VAT, have put the Government on course for a record tax take this year, writes Eoin Burke-Kennedy. But Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe says the figures paint a slightly misleading picture on the state of the public finances.

Employers’ group Ibec has downgraded its growth forecasts for the Irish economy next year amid rising prices and higher energy costs. Eoin reports that it is particularly concerned about consumer spending in the first few months of the year, a time when consumers are facing close to half their annual heating bill.

Tax advisers have called on the Government to clarify elements of the proposed rent credit in relation to third-level students. Taxback.com says that several areas lack clarity even after the publication of the Finance Bill, including the position of older students and people who are paying rent on more than one home.

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The Federal Reserve announced another three-quarter point increase in interest rates – its fourth in a row – as it continues to battle surging inflation. However, Fed chairman Jerome Powell held out hope that increases in rates could start rto slow as early as next month.

Back home, Ireland’s services sector may be losing momentum but it is still growing. And that, says AIB chief economist Oliver Mangan, is in marked contrast to the trend in the US, the UK and the euro zone. Laura Slattery reports on the latest purchasing managers index.

Aviation services firm Swissport and engineering group Arup are both facing trial over the separate deaths of two workers in their sixties following falls in the workplace.

The record label behind Taylor Swift and U2, Universal Music, delivered a fivefold increase in profit from its Irish business on the back of the resurgence in popularity of vinyl records.

Gordon also reports that Tayto Snacks delivered its best year yet for its German owners, Intersnack, in 2021 with sales jumping 11 per cent as impulse purchasing bounced back after the Covid disruption.

And US toy giant Hasbro has sold one of Ireland’s largest animation studios, Boulder Media, to the Australian-based Princess Pictures.

In our features today, a DNA tracing tool that had its genesis in an Irish firm spun out of Trinity College could lead to more sustainable fish quotas, helping both fishermen and the fish stocks themselves, writes Sean Duke in Innovation.

And in technology, we look at the very unconventional takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk and explain how the deal was ultimately done.

Finally, in Net Results, Karlin Lillington recalls an almost forgotten Irish computer pioneer from almost a century ago as he is finally recognised with a plaque on his Drumcondra home.

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