Vodafone to lure customers onto new 4G service with sport and music services August 7, 2013 Vodafone has announced it will be launching its high speed 4G service on the same day as rival O2 on 29 August. The operator will be looking to get the edge on its rival by offering 150 hours of Premier League football from Sky Sports or music from online streaming service Spotify Premium – as [...]
Fitch affirms AAA rating for Germany assuming strong growth and no more contributions to eurozone crisis mechanisms August 7, 2013 Ratings agency Fitch has affirmed Germany’s rating as “AAA” with a stable outlook (release). Fitch said the affirmation reflects a number of factors including: The government has overachieved on some key fiscal targets, beating its target for headline fiscal balance for the second consecutive year in 2012 with a surplus of 0.2 per cent of [...]
City inhabitants nearly three times more productive than UK average August 7, 2013 City residents account for nearly three times the GDP output per person than the UK average, according to a new study by trade union GMB (release). The study measures GDP using the purchasing power standard (PPS) per individual, which is intended to eliminate differences in purchasing power between regions and countries. By this measure, GDP [...]
Canadian building permits plummet more than expected in July – the first fall in half a year August 7, 2013 Permits for the construction of new buildings in Canada fell by a greater than expected 10.3 per cent in June – the first decrease in six months. Analysts had expected a slightly less drastic decline of 3.2 per cent following the previous month’s revised 5.8 per cent growth. Despite this, the total value of building [...]
New Portuguese treasury secretary resigns over swap contract reports August 7, 2013 Portugal’s new treasury secretary Joaquim Pais Jorge has resigned just weeks after taking the position after media reports questioned his role in the offering of swap contracts to the preceding government while working in his previous role at Citigroup. Swap contracts have been a particularly controversial subject in Portugal over the last few months, with [...]
Obama cancels meeting with Russian president amid tensions regarding Snowden and human rights August 7, 2013 US president Barack Obama has cancelled meetings with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow amid tensions over former National Security Agency IT contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden. The meetings had been scheduled for September, but it now appears they will not be going ahead. A Kremlin aide said Obama's decision was "disappointing". Russia has [...]
Proposals for expanding UK air capacity reveal a “wide spectrum” of views August 7, 2013 The Davies Commission, charged with examining the need for additional UK airport capacity and making recommendations for government policy in this area, has received and published the proposals submitted. Sir Howard Davies, who chairs the commission, said the responses “show clearly the wide spectrum of views that exist”. The set of 29 proposals includes plans [...]
Osborne and Balls both want to have their monetary cake and eat it August 7, 2013 Osborne and Balls have weighed in on the introduction of forward guidance by the Bank of England, and both now seek to ask for what they can't have. Chancellor George Osborne: "I also clarified that the Committee may judge it appropriate to deploy explicit forward guidance including intermediate thresholds in order to influence expectations and [...]
Bank of England remains reluctant to end monetary policy by committee August 7, 2013 Mark Carney hasn't been in the job that long, and it's all change at the Old Lady. We've now got an unemployment yardstick of 7 per cent and an effective inflation upper limit of 2.5 per cent. But this doesn't kick in properly until 2015. Inflation is already at 2.9 per cent, with unemployment up [...]
Initial analyst responses to Bank of England inflation report and Q&A August 7, 2013 Some reactions to the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report and governor Mark Carney's announcement of a forward guidance policy. Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital: Sensible Fed-style strategy adopted by dovish governor BOE Mark Carney, switching things up at the Bank of England since his occupancy started in July. At the press [...]