In this week’s public policy bulletin, we take a look at the latest Irish rental market statistics as well as the performance of Ireland’s exports in the first quarter of 2023. In addition we examine the annual rate of inflation across the Euro zone as well as Northern Ireland’s labour market statistics for April 2023.
Rate of rise in rental prices slows in first quarter of 2023
The rate of increase in advertised rents slowed slightly during the first three months of the year, rising just 1 percent compared to the average rate of 3 percent seen in 2021-2022 according to the latest Irish Rental Report from Daft.ie. In particular, the first three months of 2023 saw open-market rents fall in the cities outside Dublin - even as they continued to increase strongly in many rural markets. Nonetheless, market rents still rose by 11.7 percent in the year to March 2023, a high rate historically but a slowdown relative to the peak inflation rate of 14.1 percent seen in 2022. The total number of properties available to rent on May 1st was just 959. While this is up 13 percent on the same date a year earlier, it is one of the lowest totals seen on the site since the start of the report in 2005.
Annual inflation up to 7 percent in Euro zone
According to figures published this week by Eurostat (the official statistical office of the EU), overall price growth accelerated to 7 percent in April from 6.9 percent a month earlier, as rising services and energy costs offset a slowdown in food price growth. The lowest annual rates were registered in Luxembourg (2.7 percent), Belgium (3.3 percent) and Spain (3.8 percent) while the highest annual rates were recorded in Hungary (24.5 percent), Latvia (15.0 percent) and Czechia (14.3 percent). Inflation has so far remained above the ECB's 2 percent target for nearly two years now with the bank raising interest rates by a combined 375 basis points since last July to arrest runaway price growth.
Latest figures show Irish exports remaining strong in first 3 months of 2023
According to statistical data published this week by the CSO, the value of Irish goods exports came to €18.8 billion in March with exports of medical and pharmaceutical products accounting for nearly 40 per cent of this total figure. While this was down on same period last year, it was strong in historical terms and reflects the ongoing strength of Irish exports more generally. The figures show that total exports for the first quarter of the year were valued at nearly €51 billion. Irish goods imports for March amounted to €11.2 billion. In seasonally adjusted terms, the State’s trade surplus was €6.6 billion.
Northern Ireland Labour Market statistics
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency this week released its latest batch of labour market statistics for the region. According to the release, the number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in April 2023 was 785,500, a 0.6 percent decrease over the month but a 1.5 percent increase over the year. Moreover, HMRC PAYE data indicated that NI employees had a median monthly pay of £2,062 in April 2023, a decrease of £56 (2.6 per cent) over the month and an increase of £128 (6.6 percent) over the year. Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 37,500, representing 3.9 per cent of the total workforce.
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