Planet business

LAURA SLATTERYperuses the week that was in business

 9.2

– the percentage by which the Irish economy will shrink this year, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)

30,000

– net annual migration expected by the ESRI over the next year

13.2

– the average percentage unemployment rate it has forecast for 2009

16.8

– the average percentage unemployment rate it has forecast for 2010

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

'Would it not be better to go for nationalisation straight away, as that is an end point you might end up at anyway?'

- ESRI economist Dr Alan Barrett says there is an "implicit difficulty" with the Governments plan for dealing with toxic assets in banks.

GOOD WEEK

Meteor

Ireland's third favourite mobile network will be the lead sponsor on the next series of TV3's The Apprentice, which means that not only will there be an episode revolving around a task based on the hilarious world of mobile telephony, but Meteor will also get production company Screentime ShinAwiL to edit exclusive "mobisodes" of additional content for Apprentice addicts who happen to have an 085 number and live in Dublin, Cork or any of the other cities in which Meteor has rolled its broadband network out by the time the show airs.

GlaxoSmithKline and Roche

Roche makes Tamiflu. GlaxoSmithKline makes Relenza. Both are antiviral medications stockpiled by governments around the world. Now that a flu outbreak is here in swine form, the supplies have to be released and replenished, pushing up the drug companies' share prices on Monday. There was some slippage later in the week as investors who bought shares in the wake of the crisis swiftly sold their holdings and pocketed their profits. There's nothing like a phase 5 pandemic to get one on the phone to one's share dealer.

BAD WEEK

Daniel Bouton

The chairman of French bank Société Générale is stepping down because he said "repeated personal attacks" against him had become "unbearable" and risked hurting the bank. Bouton, who oversaw the expansion of the bank and then its undoing by the subprime crisis and a €4.9 billion trading scandal, was replaced as chief executive last year and is now exiting the stage completely – "so the bank can have peace", he told French newspaper Le Figaro.

Mexico-bound holidaymakers

Tourists heading for the Mexican resort of Cancun via tour operators TUI Travel, Thomas Cook and others were disappointed this week after their chartered flights there were cancelled due to the outbreak of swine flu. The good news was that refunds were available and, of course, that they avoided contracting a potential illness and then bringing it back to their friends and families. The bad news was that with the virus spreading as fast as it is, it may still be a case of stocking up on face masks, just in a less sunny location.