SGC Business » budget

Budget 2012

Mr. Hannon — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:56:08 +0000

Here’s a summary of Budget 2012. Thanks to Ms. Casey.

How would you reduce the Budget Deficit?

Mr. Hannon — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 18:49:10 +0000

Budget 2011 will take place on Tuesday December 7th. In the next few weeks, Brian Lenihan and the Department of Finance will be looking at their options to reduce the budget deficit of €20bn per annum.

This annual deficit of €20,000m means the government is spending €20bn more than it receives in revenue from taxes.

So, if you were the Minister for Finance, what would you do first in order to cut the deficit?

This Week

Mr. Hannon — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:55:49 +0000

A summary of this week’s main business news.

Ireland first. Irish banks were in the news again this week. The share price of both Bank of Ireland and Anglo Irish Bank went below €1. The market capitalisation of Bank of Ireland is now less than €1bn.

Banks are still reluctant to lend money and need to be recapitalised. The Irish government don’t have the money to invest in the banks so it looks like foreign investors i.e. private equity firms such as Carlyle and JC Flowers will invest in the Irish banks. But at what price? You may have heard of the Carlyle Group in Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 911.

Budget 2009 became law today with the passing of the Finance Bill. The Finance Act puts into law the changes made in taxation in the Budget. There have been some changes made since Budget Day on October 14th. However, according to the Financial Times, Brian Lenihan is the second worst Finance Minster in Europe. Portugal have the worst Finance Minister.

USA next. After the $700bn bailout of US financial institutions, now the US car industry is facing crisis. GM is facing bankruptcy and Ford is losing over $1bn per month. Today, the PSA Group, manufacturer of Peugeot and Citroen cars, announced they are cutting almost 3,000 jobs. The PSA group directly and indirectly employ 10% of all workers in France.

Finally, UK retailer Woolworths is for sale for £1.

Budget 2009

Mr. Hannon — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:08:09 +0000

Down to Business has a summary of all the changes in yesterday’s Budget and some videos of the Budget speech from the Dáil.

You can also get more information from the official Budget 2009 website.

The Irish Economy

Mr. Hannon — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:35:23 +0000

Today the Government will present a mini-Budget in order to reduce spending by €500m. This is due to lower tax revenue this year because of the slowdown in construction and consumer spending. However, it is not all doom and gloom and the economy is in a better state than the media would have you believe.

The Government will have to borrow more money but this money is for investment and not for day-to-day spending.
Current revenue is still higher than current expenditure. The Government will still have a current budget surplus in 2008.
If the Irish economy was a company, we would not have enough debt. Debt is not a bad thing if it is used for investment in infrastructure which will increase the productive capacity of the economy in the future. Ireland has a Debt/GDP ratio of 25% which is lower than every other Eurozone country with the exception of Luxembourg. Our private sector debt is high but the Government can afford to borrow for capital expenditure.

Source: www.davy.ie