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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

An image showing someone browsing on a screen.
This blog article focuses on key UK Government, Northern Ireland Executive and Departmental initiatives which are currently in place to address the digital divide in Northern Ireland (NI). Following…
An image showing a tablet in use
This blog article provides a brief overview of the ‘Digital Divide’. Drawing on the Northern Ireland experience, it explores key characteristics of the Digital Divide, as well as the…
The Nazareth Church on Berlin-Wedding’s Leopold Square with new seating area and ornamental fountains
Data recently released by the footfall-counter Springboard highlights how the number of shoppers in the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) town centres was down by a third (32.7%) when compared to…

Employment and Labour Market

Infographic illustrating the scale of the gender pay gap in Northern Ireland
By Aidan Stennett & Eóin Murphy Please note: we have posted a new version of this blog article using the most recent data, see here. This article examines the gender…
A student reading in a library (Image: Tulane University, under Creative Commons)
Education and training are key factors in economic progress, acting as a means of raising productivity. Whilst other factors can result in short-run economic improvements, education and training are…
A pay slip with pound coins
The introduction of the National Living Wage (NLW) could have a number of impacts in Northern Ireland (NI), raising the earnings of those aged over 25, but potentially creating…

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

This article unpicks key recent developments relating to public finance in Northern Ireland (NI), while there is no functioning Executive or Assembly and there is no direct rule from…
A photograph showing Market Square in Lisburn (credit: Albert Bridge)
Rates are a property tax paid by households and businesses. There are two different types of rates in Northern Ireland, domestic rates for residential properties and non-domestic rates for…
An image showing some Northern Ireland bank notes and coins
Yesterday, in the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced some changes to the United Kingdom (UK) Government’s spending plans based on the latest economic data. What…

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…