Planet Business

Compiled by Laura Slattery.

Quote of the Week

"I could name you 30, maybe 40, hard landings after studying booms and busts in other countries. I cannot name you one instant of a soft landing. Housing markets just don't work that way."

- UCG professor of economics Dr Alan Ahearne sets the tone for RTÉ's Future Shock: Property Crash programme.

The Numbers

1981The year in which the pound last traded at such a high versus the dollar before this week, when interest rate fears sent the currency surging through the $2 level for the first time since Black Wednesday in 1992.

11.1 per centRate of growth in the Chinese economy in the first quarter of 2007.

4 per centthe latest Central Bank estimate for the rate of growth in the Irish economy for 2008

£2 billionThe reported cost of Gordon Brown's decision to auction off 400 tonnes of the UK's gold bullion stocks between 1999 and 2002, when the price of gold was low.

Good Week . . .

Ethna Tinney So-called people's director lost the vote to be re-elected to the EBS Building Society's board but only by a narrow margin, and she claimed a moral victory as EBS's directors were attacked by members at its agm.

The National Conference CentreSecured its first booking, with 1,000 delegates from the British Orthopaedic Association scheduled to descend on its hopefully ergonomically correct auditorium in September 2011.

An PostThe Financial Regulator awarded it a banking licence for Postbank, its joint venture with Belgian bank Fortis. New savings and investment products will soon be unleashed on the nation's letter senders.

Bad Week . . .

The drinks industryAlcohol consumption has slumped 7 per cent since its peak in 2001, according to figures published by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI), while retail sales data show bar sales have grown an "underwhelming" 0.7 per cent year-on-year.

HeinekenFined €219 million by the European Commission after it was found to have taken part in a price-fixing cartel in The Netherlands, alongside Dutch beers Grolsch and Bavaria.

Paul WolfowitzFacing calls for his resignation as World Bank president after he admitted a role in the promotion of Shaha Riza, a World Bank employee with whom he is romantically involved.

Metaphor of the Week . . .

"To use old statistics to deal with a current problem is like driving your car by looking through the rear mirrors."

- DIGI chairman Michael Patten invokes an unfortunate image of dangerous driving in his complaint that public health policymakers are working off outdated alcohol consumption rates in their steps to curb irresponsible drinking.

The latest Central Bank estimate for the rate of growth in the Irish economy for 2008.