Business & Economy

The Central Bank of Ireland has reported that it's made a profit of €1.2bn for 2011. The Annual Report, published this morning, credits lending to banks as the main source of the profit. The report (which you can see in full below the fold) says that Governor Patrick Honohan will take a pay cut of almost 10%.

The Department of Finance has this morning published a revised version of it's Statement of Strategy for 2011-2014. The revised strategy, according to the Department's Secretary General is because 2011's goals were about "crisis management and less about planning strategically for the future". You can see the strategy document and statement from DoF in full below the fold.

The Central Statistics Office has just released figures which show the Consumer Price Index increased by 1.9% in the year to April, but remain unchanged for the month itself. The CSO notes the largest increases over the year were in Education 9.4%, Transport +5.7% and Beverages & Tobacco + 3.2%.

The standardised rate of unemployment has not changed compared to last month, according to figures just released by the Central Statistics Office. Full details from the CSO are below the fold.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has announced he's to quit as President of the Euro Group, which is a grouping of Finance Ministers in the Eurzone. Juncker has cited interference by France and Germany in managing the euro-area debt crisis as the reason for his decision.

The Central Bank of Ireland has this afternoon produced a piece of research that cites lack of investor confidence, negative future house price expectations and an uncertain macroeconomic outlook as the reason that house prices continue to fall.