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A blog from the Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service

Economy and Finance Blog Archive

Here you will find an archive of Economy and Finance Blog articles published before 1 May 2022, divided into their relevant categories.

Economy

Copy of the Northern Ireland Executive’s Economic Strategy and the Programme for Government Consultation Document
By Eóin Murphy, Michael Scholes, and Aidan Stennett The Northern Ireland Executive is currently revising its Economic Strategy.  What are the key factors it should take into consideration when…
Dark Hedges, County Antrim (Image: Valerie Hinojosa, under Creative Commons)
Despite the absence of a centralised tourism strategy, the sector makes a significant contribution to the Northern Ireland economy and has exceeded targets set out in the previous Programme…
Figure 2: NI exports to EU and non-EU countries, percentage of total exports, 2004-2014
A referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU is to take place on Thursday 23rd June. Voters will be asked ‘Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the…

Employment and Labour Market

Image showing the word 'wages' spelled out with some cash behind.
Do you know the hourly minimum wage rates for workers in Northern Ireland? Currently, the rates are determined under three separate schemes: the ‘National Living Wage’; the ‘National Minimum…
A bar graph showing the gender pay gap in Northern Ireland since 1998
By Michael Scholes & Aidan Stennett To highlight International Women’s Day, this blog article updates a previous one examining the Gender Pay Gap in Northern Ireland, by presenting the…
Image by perzonseo.com, used under Creative Commons 2.0
By Michael Scholes & Aidan Stennett Please note: we have posted a new version of this blog article using the most recent data, see here. To highlight International Women’s…

Energy

Image of wind farm in front of a setting sun
There was considerable growth in the development of renewable electricity over the previous Northern Ireland Assembly mandate. Changes to renewable electricity support may impact the ability to achieve similar levels…

Enterprise and Investment

This post examines financial support provided by Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) to businesses located in Northern Ireland (NI) from 2013-14 to 2017-18, identifying key impacts arising from that…

Finance

Figure 1: Resources allocated at Monitoring Rounds 2011-12 to 2015-16
Later this month, the new Minister of Finance will announce the outcome of the Executive’s June Monitoring Round. But what is a Monitoring Round, and what opportunities does it…
What is ‘outcomes-based budgeting’, and what are the key benefits and limitations of using it?…
The figure shows that DAERA, the Department of the Economy, the Department of Finance and the Executive Office all received cuts for 2017-17 from their baseline. The Departments of Communities, Health, and Justice all received increase from their baselines.
How were resources allocated to the nine Executive departments, and how much did they get? On 13th January 2016 the Minister of Finance and Personnel published the Executive’s single…

Research and Innovation

This post examines financial support provided by Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) to businesses located in Northern Ireland (NI) from 2013-14 to 2017-18, identifying key impacts arising from that…
An image of a microscope
  This week sees people across Northern Ireland getting interested and involved in science through the Northern Ireland Science Festival. We thought we would join the celebration of all…
Cover pages of the 2012 Economic Strategy and 2017 draft Industrial Strategy
Following on from a recent blog post on ‘a revised strategy for Northern Ireland’s Economy’, this post looks at the Department for the Economy’s draft Industrial Strategy and highlights…