Zara sees profits and jobs up September 18, 2013 Inditex, the Spanish company that owns clothes shop Zara, has seen net sales rise six per cent to 7.7bn euros in the first half of 2013. Net profit amounted to 951m euros (£798.2m). The group has created over 10,000 jobs, refurbished and enlarge a number of flagship stores, including London's Brompton Road, and opened 95 [...]
Osborne says home building is up – but we’re well behind where we need to be September 18, 2013 Chancellor George Osborne says homebuilding is up – but avoided dropping the relevant numbers, when challenged at a business conference today. Challenged at the Institute of Directors conference on the coalition's progress in implementing supply-side reform of the construction industry, Osborne said that "housebuilding is up and planning applications are up". The statistics are however, [...]
Sotheby’s to auction former Lehman president’s collection September 18, 2013 Auction house Sotheby's has announced it's to auction off the collection of former Lehman Brothers president Joseph Gregory. Sotheby’s is pleased to offer this October the tasteful and elegant Collection of Niki & Joe Gregory, comprising a fine group of English and Continental furniture, ceramics and decorations from their Lloyd Harbor, New York residence, [...]
Highland Gold profit plummets following sharp decline in gold prices September 18, 2013 Mining company Highland Gold has seen a pretax profit drop of 46 per cent for the year up to the end of June. (Release) Gold prices decreased from $1,664/oz to $1,203/oz in the first half of 2013. Revenue was at £157.033m, down from £161,453m for the same period of 2012. However, despite the damage [...]
Miner Fresnillo could be back with a boom: Explosives permits expected to be reinstated September 18, 2013 Miner Fresnillo has announced that court proceedings to reinstate Minera Penmont's explosive permits are expected to reach a decision quickly (release). In August Fresnillo announced that the Magistrate in Sonora issued requests to suspend explosives permits at a number of sites. The Ministry of Defense suspended those permits at Dipolos, Soledad, Herradura and Noche Buena. [...]
Eurozone construction output growth slows in July September 18, 2013 Eurozone construction output growth has dropped from 0.7 per cent to 0.3 per cent in July. That's the fourth consecutive rise in sectoral output. That puts the annual squeeze to July at -1.2 per cent.
If US tapering happens today markets have been proved right yet again September 18, 2013 Fans of liberal economics will often say the market is a fantastic co-ordinator of activity, and as an aggregator of information, is really good at predicting future events. The start of US Federal Reserve tapering has been "priced in" for September 2013 for a while now. That is, traders have expected this month as the [...]
Regulator finds flouting of rules to avoid commission bias in financial advice September 18, 2013 A regulator has found that some life insurers are not abiding by rules put in place to remove commission bias in financial advice. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that many firms involved in their review have now changed their arrangements, while two firms have been referred to enforcement. The FCA asked 26 life insurers [...]
Productivity is 16 percentage points below G7 average – the widest gap since 1993 September 18, 2013 Compared with the other major industrialised economies, UK output per hour was 16 percentage points below average in 2012. Output per worker basis came in at 19 percentage points lower than the average for the rest of G7 for 2012, according to latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Both output per hour [...]
Weale stops turning: Bank of England committee votes unanimously against rate hikes September 18, 2013 Bank of England Monetary Police Committee (MPC) members unanimously against interest rates and increases to asset purchases this month. No MPC member thought that policy tightening was needed at present, but warned that continued rapid house price increases would be a concern. The 4% increase in the sterling price of oil would be likely to [...]