Lowest arrears rate for more than a decade as homeowners reap rewards of low interest rates and record employment February 11, 2016 The number of homeowners behind on their mortgage payments has fallen to its lowest for over 10 years. Fewer than one in 1,000 mortgages ended in repossession last year, according to figures released this morning by the Council for Mortgage Lenders (CML). The annual arrears rate for 2015 was 0.92 per cent, meaning fewer than one [...]
Why bank share prices are falling: Liquidity levels are borderline economic recession – and the world is facing another funding crisis February 11, 2016 Global investors are rushing to ‘safe’ assets. Many government bond yields have turned negative and gold, so long out of fashion, is spurting higher. Financial markets are cyclical and typically suffer sell-offs every 8/9 years: 1966, 1974, 1981, 1990, 1998, 2007/08 and now 2015/16. Yet, there is a smell of panic across the trading floors [...]
Swedish interest rates: Riksbank cuts rates again in surprise move sending krona plunging February 11, 2016 One thing’s for sure: the Riksbank doesn’t do things by halves. The Swedish central bank just took its benchmark interest rate even further into negative territory than economists were expecting. The Riksbank announced this morning it would be cutting rates to minus 0.5 per cent, from the current minus 0.35 per cent. "Our repo rates [...]
Imperial Brands boosted by rising tobacco prices February 11, 2016 Rising tobacco prices helped push UK tobacco giant Imperial Brands’ revenue up, even as the number of cigarettes sold continues to drop. The firm, which rebranded earlier this month, dropping “tobacco” from its name, blamed the dropping amount of tobacco it sold in the quarter ending 31 December 2015 on turmoil in the Middle East. [...]
Google UK tax row: If the Public Accounts Committee mistakenly equate Google’s profits to its sales when discussing corporate tax deals today, they’ll be heading down a blind alley February 11, 2016 When the Public Accounts Committee grills Google and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) chiefs today, we may hear repetition of the claim that the technology giant is only paying a three per cent corporation tax rate compared to the 20 per cent everyone else pays. The MPs could do themselves a favour by not going down this blind [...]
Rio Tinto slashes capex and scraps progressive dividend as falling commodities prices gobble up half its earnings February 11, 2016 Rio Tinto is slashing another $3bn from its capex as plunging commodities prices halved the miner’s 2015 earnings. The figures Rio Tinto posted underlying earnings of $4.5bn for 2015. This is down 51 per cent from $9.3bn the year before. Underlying earnings from the FTSE-listed miner’s aluminium arm were down 10 per cent. Iron fell [...]
Johnston Press in talks over buying the i newspaper from Evening Standard owner Alexander Lebedev February 11, 2016 ESI Media has confirmed it is in advanced talks with Johnson Press to buy the Independent's spin-off newspaper I. A figure of £24m has been put on the paper, which was launched in October 2010 with a cover price of 20p, though that has not been confirmed. The Independent – which Alexander Lebedev and his family bought for £1 [...]
Google UK boss Matt Brittin calls for international tax laws to be rewritten ahead of his Public Accounts Committee appearance February 11, 2016 The head of Google UK has called for "simpler, clearer" rules governing the international tax system – but insisted the business did not cut a "sweet-heart deal" with HMRC. Matt Brittin – who will today be grilled by MPs in the Public Accounts Committee – agreed reform was necessary "because it is important not only to [...]
Google tax: British Chambers of Commerce call for simpler business taxes as MPs grill Google executives over sweetheart tax deal February 11, 2016 A simpler business tax system would eliminate the loopholes that lead to tax avoidance schemes, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said today. The BCC's comments come as MPs on the Public Accounts Committee get ready to grill Google executives and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) bosses over the controversial "sweetheart" deal that saw Google hand over £130m [...]
UK house prices: Buy-to-let rush sparks surge in mortgage lending February 11, 2016 Buy-to-let landlords rushing to secure a property before April’s stamp duty hike has driven mortgage lending to its highest level in nine years, according to UK chartered surveyor e.surv. House purchase lending approvals reached 85,432 in January, an increase of 20.6 per cent since December 2015 and the highest number of monthly approvals since October [...]