Dear Reader,

Here is an overview of today's economic news and market action:

• Quiet start to the week on markets …
• Bank Holiday in the US and UK contributed to the lacklustre price action ...
• Risk averse tone to investor sentiment in Europe, with the Euro Stoxx 50 down 0.4% …
• Euro under some modest downward pressure …
• Sees EUR/USD open back below the $1.07 threshold …
• EUR/GBP has edged lower within the 86-87p corridor …
• GBP/USD is in the bottom half of $1.23-1.24 …
• Eurozone EC sentiment indices, Flash Spanish Inflation, and US consumer confidence (all May) due today …

PMI eased back to 48.6 in Apr, indicating a further softening in business conditions. New orders, including exports, and output fell. Meantime, there was a notable easing in inflation Traditional industrial production rose sharply in Mar, leaving it up by 2.3% QoQ and 7% YoY in Q1.

A Rainbow Nation

The CSO published the Labour Force Survey results for the opening quarter of 2023 last week. There is not much evidence in the data of a slowdown in the Irish economy from the breakneck pace seen in 2021 and 2022.

Simply the Best

The past week saw the CSO publish the Labour Force Survey results for the opening quarter of 2023.