Energy bosses to be grilled by MPs over Christmas outages January 14, 2014 December saw hundreds of thousands of homes without power as severe weather hit networks. Now MPs want to question energy bosses over the disruption. On 21 January they'll be called before the Energy and Climate Change Committee. Committee chair Tim Yeo MP said that they "will be questioning the distribution companies responsible and asking them [...]
Mega deals have returned – but European banks are losing out to US rivals January 14, 2014 As global merger and acquisition activity springs back into life after a period of relative inertia, it's worth noting that the likely benefactors amongst bank advisers to these mega deals are likely to be increasingly American. While the likes of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch find themselves set [...]
Good news chocoholics: The sweet stuff is getting cheaper January 14, 2014 Welcome data from the statisticians if you're a fan of cocoa-based sweet things. The Office for National Statistics has reported that as food product prices fell by 0.5 per cent between November and December, the main contribution came from a drop "in the price of chocolate and food preparations containing cocoa". Product prices in that [...]
Eurozone industrial production growth is twice what analysts predicted January 14, 2014 Some optimistic news from the Eurozone today. Industrial production in the economic area increased three per cent year-on-year in November – over double the 1.4 per cent consensus prediction and comfortably exceeding the small increase of 0.5 per cent (revised up from 0.2 per cent) seen between October 2012 and October 2013. The figures, released [...]
UK economy no freer than in 2013 says Washington think tank January 14, 2014 Despite tax cuts and reductions in government spending the UK economy is no freer than it was in 2013, according to the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom. At the dawn of 2014 the UK managed to increase its score by a meagre 0.1 percentage points. Overall, the UK scored 74.9 out of 100. Britain [...]
UK house prices growth continues forward march January 14, 2014 House prices increased 5.4 per cent in the 12 months to November 2013 – down from the 5.5 per cent increase seen from October 2012 to 2013 but still showing growth gaining momentum across the country, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. England saw 5.6 per cent growth in the 12 months, [...]
Mark Carney is going to be very happy about this chart January 14, 2014 Inflation is finally at the Bank of England's target – and it only took four years to get there. So we expect that the Bank's (still relatively new to the job) governor Mark Carney will be pretty pleased by this chart of falling annual consumer price inflation: This morning Societe Generale's Kit Juckes [...]
Inflation falls to 2pc target for first time in four years January 14, 2014 Inflation is finally at target. Prices rose by just two per cent in the year to December, after inflation dropped from 2.2 per cent to 2.1 per cent in November. Analysts had expected no change. Inflation had been above the Bank of England two per cent target every month since December 2009. The largest contributions [...]
Moneysupermarket energy switching revenues jump 200pc January 14, 2014 A sharp increase in people changing energy providers has provided a staggering revenue boost to price comparison site Moneysupermarket's energy switching service. In a statement this morning, the web-based business said that revenues from switching were up almost 200 per cent in the fourth quarter, in the wake of the price hike announcements from energy firms [...]
Here’s why Japanese stocks have seen their worst day in five months January 14, 2014 Asian shares were in the wars today. The Nikkei 225 average tumbled 3.1 per cent in Tuesday trading – taking it to a one-month low and marking the biggest one-day drop in five months. The broader Topix dropped 2.3 per cent, and Asian ex-Japan shares were down 0.8 per cent. The shift into the red [...]