EU referendum: Mark Carney clashes with Jacob Rees-Mogg over Brexit warning at Treasury Select Committee May 24, 2016 Mark Carney has defended the Bank of England's Brexit analysis as he faced accusations of becoming "politically involved" with the EU referendum in a tense hearing in front of MPs. Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg accused the chancellor of making unprecedented political interventions of the kind that would be impossible before a general election. Carney fired back in [...]
The deficit is even higher than we thought – again May 24, 2016 The UK's deficit is even higher than first thought, according to new figures released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning. Public sector net borrowing – the amount of cash the government has to borrow to plug the difference between its income and outgoings – came in at £76bn for the 2015/16 [...]
These are the MPs Mark Carney will be up against at the Treasury Select Committee May 24, 2016 Nobody enjoys select committee hearings. Mark Carney, however, might be the exception to that rule. For a man who wears a pained expression every time he is probed on something Brexit-related, the governor of the Bank of England has really been stepping up the warnings of late. And it's set to make for a tasty showdown at [...]
Why Brexit won’t be a disaster (and as former City minister, I should know) May 24, 2016 As someone who spent 25 years working in finance, four years scrutinising the Treasury as a backbencher, and then two years first as City minister, now as Energy Minister, I've seen at first hand the economic cycles, the disasters and triumphs. These experiences tell me that the UK has an outstanding future as a free trading global [...]
Storm clouds are gathering – but Osborne hasn’t fixed the roof May 24, 2016 Uncertainty caused by a potential Brexit in the run up to June's crunch vote may be creating a smokescreen as far as the UK economy is concerned: the reality could be far worse than a few pre-referendum jitters. Recent economic data and surveys reveal some worrying signs about the economy's underlying performance. Profits at the UK’s [...]
Bayer’s $62bn Monsanto bid: Are European firms about to take over the world? May 24, 2016 Just when you thought the dearth of outbound M&A in Europe was here to stay, Germany’s Bayer sweeps in with a $62bn bid for US agrichemicals giant Monsanto. Not only would the tie-up create the world’s largest agricultural supplier, more significantly for Europe, it would be the biggest outbound takeover by a German corporate on [...]
Investment manager Dragon wants fund to breathe fire with London float May 23, 2016 Investment management company Dragon Capital is planning to float its flagship fund on the London Stock Exchange. Dragon wants Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited (VEIL), which has a net asset value (NAV) of $850m (£587m), to list on the main market of the exchange from July. Read more: London set for IPO market recovery… but not just [...]
The UK is among worst offenders for breaking EU’s budget rule, says German think tank May 23, 2016 The UK is one of the worst offenders for violating the EU’s budget deficit limit of three per cent of GDP, according to research by German think tank Ifo Institute. The report, that comes ahead of the release of the UK's public sector finances tomorrow, found that Britain recorded a total of nine violations since 1999 out of which two, [...]
At the close: FTSE falls after oil price drop erases earlier gains May 23, 2016 A meandering start to the week saw the FTSE 100 climb strongly shortly after the open only to fall back before lunch time. The blue-chip index ended the day at 6,136.43, down 0.32 per cent from yesterday's close price. The falling oil price, down over one per cent and moving away from the psychologically important $50 per [...]
BlackRock bets on lithium with stake in Aim-listed Bacanora Minerals May 23, 2016 The world's largest asset manager BlackRock has taken a bet on lithium, the so-called "white petroleum", with a stake in Aim-listed miner Bacanora Minerals. Lithium is a small but irreplaceable component of rechargeable batteries for small-scale devices such as mobile phones. Prices have already risen this year, and analysts predict tremendous growth in the future, mainly due to [...]