Homeowners face the prospect of higher electricity and natural gas bills if the war in Iran does not end in weeks, industry figures said at the weekend, as oil prices fluctuated at about $110 a barrel early on Monday following US president Donald Trump’s threats on Sunday to target Iran’s infrastructure if the country does not open the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane, writes Barry O’Halloran. Crude prices are up about 50 per cent since the conflict began.
EU officials are separately urging governments to avoid excessive support to offset surging energy prices, warning that the shock triggered by the Iran war could tip into a fiscal crisis.
The oil at the centre of the energy crisis is a commodity, as are coffee, cotton and gold, among others. These things are central to our daily lives but how do you go about investing in them? Fiona Reddan takes you through the process and the costs in our ongoing How to Invest series.
JP Morgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon has other concerns on his mind. In his widely-read annual shareholders’ letter, he warns that losses for lenders to highly indebted companies will be higher than many expect because of weakening lending standards. It comes as concerns grow around the health of the $1.8 trillion (€1.56 trillion) private credit industry.
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Back home, as Sweden says it will seek a renegotiation of the European Union’s Pay Transparency Directive, Emmet Malone tests the water on support for the measure in Ireland where it has already been announced that implementation it will be delayed. Business groups say they are doing everything possible for a measure they support. Trade unions are not convinced.
Activity in Ireland’s services sector increased again in March but at one of the weakest rates over the past five years, writes Colin Gleeson. New business growth moderated and price inflation accelerated sharply to a three-year high with much of the blame being laid at the door of the Gulf conflict.
That wariness has not dampened the more than 10,000 homebuyers who have now been approved by the First Home Scheme, which sees the State help people who cannot buy a home despite mortgage approval and a deposit by taking a stake of up to 30 per cent in the property to get them over the line. Colin Gleeson reports.
Sticking with property, a business owned by Minister for State Michael Healy-Rae has received €1.33 million in State payments for accommodating Ukrainians fleeing war with Russia since 2022 in a B&B in Tralee.
In our personal finance Q&A this week, we hear from one reader who wants to use the small gift exemption to help a daughter living in London but worries that the rules on how it is taxed (or not) may be different over there.
Another reader wants to know just what will happen to their pension fund after they die and, more importantly, will it be taxed and how?
In the early 1990s, Boris Johnson built his career in Brussels on a string of inventive stories only lightly tethered to facts where every minor EU regulatory tweak became an assault on British institutions. His reporting for the Daily Telegraph helped shape the tone of surging Euroscepticism that would culminate, eventually, in Brexit, writes High Linehan. Now, the paper most closely associated with British nationalism is in the process of being acquired by, of all things, a German.
Finally, a group of 25 credit unions have come together to set up a credit union services organisation (Cuso) as a first step towards establishing a single body to manage treasury functions for members, with a view to boosting mortgage and business lending. Joe Brennan has the details.
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