It’s official: German GDP contracted 0.2 per cent in the second quarter September 1, 2014 More bad news for the Eurozone: the German economy contracted during the second quarter of the year, the country's Federal Statistics Office confirmed today. The figures confirmed preliminary estimates, which suggested GDP shrank 0.2 per cent in the second quarter, after 0.7 per cent growth in the first quarter. Compared with the same period in [...]
Domestic demand subdued as Chinese manufacturing growth slows September 1, 2014 It's an underwhelming morning for the Chinese economy. Official purchasing managers' index (PMI) figures for the manufacturing sector missed expectations by 0.1 points in August, while HSBC and Markit Economics's measure was revised down by a similar amount. Asian markets remained largely unaffected by the news, with Shanghai Composite, the Nikkei and the [...]
Kier lands £50m Greenwich house building contract September 1, 2014 Housebuilder Kier has picked up a £50m contract to build luxury apartments at London's Greenwich Peninsula development. Kier will design and build 224 luxury apartments in four blocks on the Thames riverside as part of the areas regeneration project that aims to deliver 10,000 homes by 2039. Kier was chosen as the preferred bidder for [...]
Three charts showing the challenges facing new Tesco boss Dave Lewis September 1, 2014 New Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis starts his job today, a month earlier than originally anticipated. The supermarket is clearly desperate: on Friday it issued a profit warning saying it expected full-year profits to hit £2.4bn, rather than the £2.8bn expected. The company has been battling against the increasing might of discounters Aldi and Lidl, [...]
Housebuilder Berkeley: The London property market is back to “normal” September 1, 2014 Tony Pidgley, the charismatic founder and boss of Berkeley Group, is famous for calling the top of the housing market during the downturn. Today, the London housebuilder holds its Annual General Meeting – and in a trading statement this morning, Pidgley said the market is "stabilising": Since the start of the current financial year, the [...]
New terror powers to bar suspect Brits fighting in Iraq and Syria from UK August 31, 2014 Tough new measures to combat the threat posed to the UK by terrorist groups will be announced by David Cameron in parliament today. The Prime Minister is expected to unveil plans to ban British-born jihadists fighting in Iraq and Syria from returning to the UK, in a bid to guard against potential attacks. The announcement [...]
Children to study computer programming and financial numeracy as new subjects added to school timetables August 31, 2014 Thousands of children as young as five will return to school this week to find a new subject added to primary and secondary school timetables as the government introduces computer programming and financial numeracy. England will become the first G20 country to teach programming in the classroom, a move that it is hoped will modernise [...]
Dreary Eurozone outlook raises pressure on Draghi August 31, 2014 The policymakers of the European Central Bank (ECB) will meet again this week, faced with an increasingly dismal economic outlook and a growing chorus of disapproval. Grim figures released on Friday confirmed that consumer price inflation in the euro area dropped to just 0.3 per cent in August, the lowest level in nearly five years. [...]
EU warns Russia to withdraw from Ukraine as Putin steps up rhetoric August 31, 2014 EUROPEAN leaders, backed by America, have warned Russia’s President Putin that he has a week to withdraw from Ukraine and calm the crisis between the two countries, or face tough new economic sanctions. The warning comes as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said his country is at breaking point. “We are very close to the point [...]
Hong Kong row over Beijing’s election rules August 31, 2014 THE CHINESE government yesterday prompted another round of protests in Hong Kong, as Beijing ruled out the open nomination of candidates to elect the city’s Chief Executive. If current plans go ahead, Hong Kong’s 2017 election will be the first ever in which all adult residents of the region are permitted to vote. Despite this [...]