A round-up of other business news in brief....

British house prices rose 1.2% in May

British house prices rose for the second time in three months in May, slowing the annual rate of decline, according to the Nationwide Building Society said yesterday.

Nationwide said average house prices rose 1.2 per cent during May, the second rise since March when house prices turned higher for the first time since October 2007. The annual rate of decline slowed from 15 per cent to a nine-month low of 11 per cent.

Waterford in 3.6m electricity deal

Three Waterford local authorities have signed a two-year deal with electricity provider Energia worth about €3.6 million.

Waterford City Council, Waterford County Council and Dungarvan Town Council, have bought more than 20GWh (gigawatt hours) of power from Energia. In a statement, Energia said the deal would lead to a reduction in the county’s carbon footprint of up to 10,700 tonnes each year.

New commercial chief for Elan

Irish pharmaceutical company Elan has appointed Dr Renee Tannenbaum as executive vice-president and chief commercial officer.

Elan’s chief executive Kelly Martin said the company needed someone with “expertise in product launches, sales, marketing, managed markets, product development and commercialisation, alliance management and leadership development”.

Dr Tannenbaum was the head of global commercial operations for Novartis Pharma for the last three years.

The appointment fulfils a commitment the company made earlier this year to shareholders concerned about the lack of marketing experience on the board.

BCI funding to radio and TV stations

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has awarded €25,000 to seven licensed radio and television stations under its Station Innovation Scheme. The funding will allow smaller stations develop streaming capabilities and to support a trial by RTÉ Radio and Phantom 105.2 of ways to generate advertising revenue through digital radio.

Funding has also been given to a community television station to allow it test ways of broadcasting local events using mobile phone technology.

Worst 6 months in 50 years for US

The US economy shrank at an annual pace of 5.7 per cent in the first quarter, capping its worst six-month performance in five decades and reflecting declines in housing, inventories and business investment.

The contraction in gross domestic product was smaller than the government estimated last month, revised figures from the Commerce Department showed, but the drop was larger than economists had forecast, and followed a 6.3 per cent tumble in the last three months of 2008.

The slowdown is forecast to ease this quarter. – (Bloomberg)

Deflation risk as euro prices flat

Prices stopped growing year-on-year in the euro zone in May for the first time and economists expect them to fall in June and July, posing a risk of deflation that could damage economic recovery.

Consumer prices were flat year-on-year in the 16-country euro area this month after increases of 0.6 per cent in March and April, the European Union’s statistics office said yesterday. – (Reuters)