Canadian pensions: Recently elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tells Bloomberg he will be lowering Old Age Security eligibility to 65, down from 67, at Budget on 22 March March 17, 2016 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today announced that he would be lowering Old Age Security eligibility age to 65 at next week's Budget. Plans to raise the age for eligibility for Old Age Security – which is similar to the UK's State Pension – to 67 where put in place in 2012 by former Prime Minister Stephen [...]
Bank of England’s monetary policy committee votes unanimously to keep interest rates at rock bottom as it signals concern over EU referendum and pay growth March 17, 2016 Interest rates at the Bank of England will be kept at a record low of 0.5 per cent for the next month after another unanimous vote. The MPC is concerned pay rises might be lower due to subdued inflation, the minutes of the meeting revealed. The MPC said empirical evidence on inflation expectations and their [...]
Women rejoice: The tampon tax is about to be axed as George Osborne says deal with EU “days away” March 17, 2016 Women across Britain rejoice – the tampon tax is about to be axed. George Osborne has said the government is about to agree a deal with Europe "in the next few days" to end the raw deal that women get having to pat VAT on them. "I perfectly understand people's anger at paying the tampon [...]
Eurozone deflation ruins quantitative easing’s first birthday March 17, 2016 Annual price growth in the Eurozone dropped to back into negative territory in February, official figures confirmed this morning. Inflation as measured by the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) was minus 0.2 per cent in February, according to EU statistical office Eurostat. The data confirms an earlier estimate and shows inflation has deviated further from its two per [...]
FTSE 100 opens higher as Brent crude oil price rallies March 17, 2016 Markets opened cautiously higher this morning, as investors cheered a decision by the Federal Reserve's Open Markets Committee to hold interest rates – and oil rallied. The FTSE 100 crept up 0.62 per cent, to 6,212 points, pushed up by miners again. Anglo American jumped 9.8 per cent to 541.1p, while Glencore rose 7.6 per cent to 155.4p [...]
Ted Baker raises dividend 18.6 per cent as profits jump 20 per cent March 17, 2016 The figures: Group revenue rose 17.7 per cent to £456.2m in the 52 weeks ended 30 January, up from £387.6m a year earlier. Pre-tax profit jumped 20.3 per cent to £58.7m during this period, up from £48.8m in the year to January 2015. This was helped by e-commerce sales which swelled 45.8 per cent to £53.5m, up from £36.7m. The board hiked Ted Baker's [...]
Brent crude and WTI: Oil prices extend gains on output freeze meeting March 17, 2016 Oil prices extended gains this morning, continuing to rise on firmer news of a meeting to discuss freezing output at January levels between the world's biggest suppliers. Opec and non-Opec producers are due to hold a meeting next month, even without the participation of rebel Iran. This would would increase the likelihood of the first global [...]
Chancellor George Osborne approves Sir Charlie Bean’s shake up of UK economic statistics March 17, 2016 An overhaul of the way the UK collects and manages its economics data has been approved by the Treasury. Plans for an Economics Centre of Excellence and Data Science Campus at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have been announced as part of the budget. Around £17m of investment will support the initiatives at headquarters of [...]
Libor scandal: Convicted former UBS and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes tells Old Bailey how he broke down over rate-rigging allegations March 16, 2016 Tom Hayes told a court today how the rate-rigging allegations that eventually lead to his conviction caused him to suffer a breakdown, as he continued his legal battle over his assets. Hayes, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence after being found guilty of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud for his role in manipulating Libor, has [...]
Dollar dips as US Federal Reserve holds interest rates and cuts forecasts March 16, 2016 The US Federal Reserve kept it's main policy interest rates on hold today. The target rate for the federal funds rate was kept at 0.25 to 0.5 per cent. It marks the second meeting since December that the federal open market committee has held rates after rising them for the first time since the 2008-9 recession in [...]