• Interest groups stress their contribution to price stability

  Many of the interest groups which the Government has said it will consult on how to curb inflation will be citing the contribution they claim they have already made to reducing rates. p
  

• More inspectors to police retail prices

  The Departments of Finance and of Enterprise and Employment are discussing the appointment of extra consumer inspectors to police the Government's new anti-inflation measures and are formalising a budget for the campaign to raise public awareness of prices. p
  

• Medicom planning public listing

  Medicom Computer Solutions which provides IT solutions and products to medical consultants plans to seek a flotation of its shares within the next 18 months. Announcing the acquisition of a 15 per cent stake by Davy Stockbrokers Technology BES Fund, the managing director, Mr Howard Beggs, said Medicom plans to go for a listing on either AIM or Offex. p
  

• Bula Resources reduces annual loss to £699,000

  Bula Resources has reduced its losses from £1.18 million (€1.50 million) to £699,000 last year, mainly by the raising of £4.6 million through a share placing. Meanwhile, the company would only say it is making "good progress" with the Libyan oil group Oilinvest about establishing a strategic partnership. The shares, which had soared in value on these rumours and of favourable prospects for the group in Iraq, were weaker yesterday after its results. The shares closed at 80 cents, down 12 cents. p
  

• Economist warns of `progressive' labour shortages

  From 2004 onwards the numbers of new domestic entrants to the labour market will fall progressively and the economy can no longer look to natural labour supply, economist Mr Paul Tansey warned yesterday. p
  

• Future of Charleville plant focus of Golden Vale meeting

  The future of Golden Vale's milk processing operations in Charleville dominated a sometimes acrimonious annual general meeting, with chief executive Mr Jim Murphy rejecting efforts by a group of shareholders to make it clear what the future of the plant is. p
  

• Central Bank alarmed at inflationary implications

  The economy is showing increasing signs of overheating and underlying inflation is likely to remain significantly above the euro zone average for some time, the Central Bank has warned in its latest bulletin. p
  

• Eircom reduces interconnect rates

  Eircom has responded to a direction from the Telecoms Regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, to reduce interconnect rates significantly for other operators by publishing new interim rates which are 23 per cent lower than end of 1999 levels. New entrants to the market have to connect with Eircom's network as it takes a number of years for them to build up a nationwide network of their own. The new offer presents operators with the most significant fall in interconnect rates since liberalisation in December 1998, according to Ms Doyle. p
  

• DT in $9.5bn bond sale

  German telephone giant Deutsche Telekom AG sold $9.5 billion of dollar-denominated bonds yesterday as part of its record-shattering $14.6 billion global bond sale. p
  

• ACCBank action called off

  Tomorrow's threatened industrial action at ACCBank has been called off. SIPTU has lifted strike notice following intensive discussions at the Labour Relations Commission. Both sides have agreed to enter a partnership process on the changes required to prepare the State bank for privatisation. The company is seeking significant redundancies while staff want greater consultation on change and an employee share option scheme for 14.9 per cent of the company. This would work out at roughly £75,000 (€95,000) per employee. p
  

• Desmond buys more Greencore

  Mr Dermot Desmond is continuing his stake building exercise in Greencore with the company announcing yesterday that he has raised his shareholding to 13.85 per cent. p
  

• Elan gets US drugs approval

  Elan has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for ziconotide which is used in the treatment of chronic pain. Announcing the approval, Elan chairman and chief executive Mr Donal Geaney said the company is looking forward to working with the FDA. p
  

• CRH director exercises option

  Mr Jack Hayes, a director of CRH, has exercised options over 50,000 shares, at €2.93 per share, and sold them at €18.80 per share, making a capital gain of €793,500 (£624,932). p
  

• AIB mortgage service on call

  AIB has launched a mortgage service which customers can access through Esat Digifone Wap-enabled mobile phones. Customers will be able to receive mortgage quotations and connect to the bank's direct mortgage facility through the mobile phone. p
  

• Bord Gais resigned to delay over interconnector

  Bord Gais has accepted that the Government is likely to defer sanctioning the construction of a second gas interconnector linking Dublin and Scotland if the consortium exploring the Corrib field off Co Mayo declares that it can bring commercial gas ashore in time to meet a growing shortage of energy. p
  

• Eircom discusses executive performance scheme with IAIM

  Eircom wants to use Total Shareholder Return (TSR) as the measure of executive performance in the share option scheme it plans to present to shareholders for approval at its annual meeting on September 13th. p
  

• Process of selecting chief executive `not unduly long'

  Bord Gais is not discussing terms with any candidate for the vacant position of chief executive, its chairman, Dr Michael Conlon, said yesterday. While the company had planned to appoint a successor to Mr Philip Cronin before he retired on July 14th, Dr Conlon claimed the process of appointing a new chief executive was "not unduly long". But, he conceded, "these things are never easy". p
  

• Fed makes no move but signals rate rise ahead

  The Federal Reserve decided to hold US interest rates unchanged yesterday but suggested further rate rises might be needed to curb inflation. p
  

• Princes buys into Switchcom

  Princes Holdings, trading as Irish Multichannel (IMC), has acquired a 51 per cent stake in Switchcom, a telecoms provider, from Independent Newspapers (Ireland), for an undisclosed sum. p
  

• Wassa mine write-off means $61.54m loss for Glencar

  Glencar Mining incurred a loss before tax of $61.54 million (€65.5 million) in 1999 compared with a loss of $2.79 million (€2.97 million) in 1998. p
  

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