Out of office: Your essential round-up of the latest business news

Data released by the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) showed that mortgage approvals reached a value of €1.2 billion in May, an increase of 162 per cent on 2020 and 2 per cent on 2019. Approvals over the past 12 months equalled €12 billion, meaning they now exceed pre-pandemic levels after the period of catch-up over the last eight months. The average mortgage approval, the data showed, was for €258,500 in May, up 5 ...