The last sixty years have brought massive social and economic changes in Northern Ireland with average weekly salaries for men rising from £6.25 to £463.50 according to the latest Jubilee analysis by PwC. As retailers stock up for the occasion, London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, has even highlighted that one of...
Malcolm Preston, PwC’s global sustainability and climate change leader, reflects on the results of a PwC poll which asked CEOs how important sustainable development is now and in the future, and what they're expecting from Rio+20. With less than a month to go to the landmark Rio+20 United Nations Conference...
By John Hawksworth, PwC UK, Chief Economist At the end of April the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published, for the first time ever, official statistics on the total obligations of all UK pension providers, including the government. At the end of 2010, these obligations – which also represent the...
Over the course of the current decade the world will experience dramatic changes in its demographic profile as the figure below shows. Industrialised countries in the Northern hemisphere are expected to see their populations age and exit the labour force – an inevitable consequence of declining fertility levels and increased...
As the sun rises on Tuesday 29 May 2012 Northern Ireland taxpayers can rejoice; it’s Tax Freedom Day; when the average UK citizen has finally earned enough to pay their taxes… now they start working for themselves. For 149 days since 1 January 2011, every penny earned by the average...
Northern Ireland’s average residential property prices tumbled by 13% in the 12 months to the end of March 2012, according to a new report. Land & Property Services (LPS), assisted by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA), released the first Northern Ireland Residential Property Price Index report today...
The rate of UK inflation fell in April to its lowest since February 2010, but is still stubbornly above the Bank of England’s 2% target. Today’s Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure fell to 3% from 3.5% in March, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), while the Retail Prices...
Stephen Cave, a director with PwC’s Business Recovery Services in Belfast asks if insolvency really is the end of the road for a business. Aquascutum, Game and Rangers Football Club have all experienced it; and during 2011, so too did more than 380 local businesses in Northern Ireland. Insolvency is...
For every job created in the food and drinks sector, a further three are created in the wider regional economy, according to Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster. Speaking on the final day of the annual RUAS Balmoral Show, she congratulated the agri-food sector on being the the largest contributor to sales,...
During their wars of independence against the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s and 1830s, Greek forces were commanded by the Anglo-Irish general, Sir Richard Church. One wonders what Sir Richard would make of the state of an independent Greece today. A week after the Greek General Election, with no government,...
