Broker warns UK house price rise could accelerate April 9, 2015 House price growth has cooled since last year’s boom, but price growth remains high and could pick up again, a mortgage broker has warned. The average UK house price was £192,970 in March, 8.1 per cent higher than a year ago, according to figures released by Halifax yesterday. A boom in house prices last year [...]
Middle Eastern visitors to London splash out the most on the city’s luxury hotels April 9, 2015 Hotel prices paid by international visitors to the UK jumped last year thanks to tourists from the Middle East paying 67 per cent more for a room than the average rate. The hotels price index (HPI), a survey by online accommodation provider Hotels.com, revealed that travellers to the UK from the region paid an average [...]
IMF’s Christine Lagarde on the three big risks to the global economy April 9, 2015 Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, has said that the global economy risks slipping into a "new mediocre" which implies a prolonged period of low economic growth. "[The] global recovery continues, but it is moderate, and uneven," she said ahead of the release of the IMF's economic forecasts next week. The last forecasts released in [...]
Ed Miliband’s non-dom policy “ignores all evidence” and could backfire, says Adam Smith Institute April 9, 2015 Ed Miliband's reform to the non-dom system ignores all the evidence, risks costing the country money and could make the UK less attractive to entrepreneurs. That's the verdict of a new briefing paper from the Adam Smith Institute that aims to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the political rhetoric surrounding non-doms. In [...]
Living standards are finally rising – but only in the North April 9, 2015 Is the North-South divide about to flip on its head? A new report suggests living standards are finally beginning to rise – but only up North. According to the research, by think tank the Resolution Foundation, although typical weekly incomes rose after the financial crisis, after 2009-10 they began to fall again, hitting a low [...]
Best month of car sales this century April 8, 2015 Nearly half a million new cars rolled on to Britain’s roads in March, the best month for new car registrations since 1999. Consumers and firms registered 492,774 new cars in March, up six per cent on the same month last year, according to figures released yesterday by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). [...]
Moody’s warns Brexit is a bigger threat to UK credit rating than 2015 General Election April 8, 2015 The prospect of Britain leaving the European Union could cause more damage to the country’s credit rating than uncertainty over the outcome of May’s General Election, Moody’s warned yesterday. The ratings agency said a potential period of uncertainty if neither the Conservatives nor Labour wins an overall majority on 7 May was unlikely to affect [...]
House hunters hold off expensive home purchases as General Election could lead to levy rise April 8, 2015 Demand for prime mortgages fell at its fastest pace since 2008 at the start of this year, with industry analysts arguing it shows those looking at the most expensive homes are holding off until after the General Election. Bank of England figures show a sharp fall in lending, with demand for prime mortgages – the [...]
New survey casts doubt on growth of UK economy April 8, 2015 The UK economy is not out of the woods yet, according to a new set of survey data. Economic growth may have slowed in the first three months of this year, according to figures released today by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). Both manufacturers and service sector firms reported lower sales growth at home [...]
Federal Reserve minutes: Policymakers divided on timing of rate hike April 8, 2015 The Fed finally lost its "patience" last month, a move initially thought to imply short-term rates would rise in June, but then fed chair Janet Yellen tempered expectations by saying this "doesn't mean we are going to be impatient". And now we know why. Minutes released today show a marked divergence among officials on whether they [...]