Northern Ireland Economic and Markets Update

Here is a summary of insights:

📈 The UK has returned to 0.6% growth and is flat month-over-month while inflation is getting closer to 2% driven by a decline in energy prices.

👛 Wage growth is at 6% in the UK amid a tight labour market.

🇺🇸 US economic growth has been higher than expected and markets had gotten ahead of themselves with interest rate cut expectations.

💡 It’s always a good time to be innovative and InterTradeIreland enables you to risk share with the government.

🤖 Businesses use AI to make things more efficient and do what it couldn’t before. In our case, we use it to transcribe meetings, write summaries of projects, prompt ideas for critical thinking and analyse datasets. I watch the webinars of our technology suppliers to build my “AI literacy”.

👩‍🏫 Unemployment in Northern Ireland is at 2.2% and that’s half the level of the UK, but economic inactivity is 27% (in comparison to 22% in the UK).

✂️ Watch out for the UK inflation level tomorrow to see how it influences the MPC decision to cut UK interest rates.

💷 The markets are expecting a slightly weaker pound against the euro and flat against the dollar in the coming months.

🙋‍♀️ Women in full time positions earn more than men in NI, but 35% of employed women work part time (in comparison to 9% of men).

🔀 Cross border trade has grown from £2 billion to more than £12 billion during InterTradeIreland’s tenure to date.

4️⃣ The Northern Irish Executive has four objectives including productivity, jobs, regional balance and reduced carbon emissions.

👀 The markets are watching out for the first budget in the UK after the election, trade wars and geopolitics in the Middle East.

💪 Businesses need to embrace technology, be agile and operationally efficient, look after their staff, cultivate measured risk taking, learn continuously and have honest conversations with customers.

✅ The green economy has to potential to create 13,000 jobs and Project Harlander in Belfast Harbour is set to be one of the first self-driving vehicles in the UK next year while Catogen are seeking to decarbonise the air and Translink already use hydrogen to power their buses.

Thank you sincerely to Oonagh Murtagh and Clare Megarry to work with you this morning. It was truly insightful covering a lot of ground.