Dollar dives as US retail sales unexpectedly shrink in June July 14, 2015 The dollar fell after the commerce department said US retail sales unexpectedly fell by 0.3 percent in June, missing economists' expectations for a 0.2 per cent rise. Additionally the retail sales figure for May was revised down by 0.2 per cent to show one per cent growth, down from the 1.2 per cent initially reported. This [...]
Oil giant Petroleum Development Oman plans huge solar farm to extract oil July 14, 2015 It sounds like the opening line of a gag: an oil giant is set to built the world’s largest solar project. An unexpected alliance will have Petroleum Development Oman, the country's state oil company, teaming up with Californian solar power startup Glasspoint to build a solar plant with capacity for more than a gigawatt of [...]
Sterling jumps after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney says interest rate hike “moving closer” July 14, 2015 The pound jumped to $1.56 this morning after Bank of England boss Mark Carney said an interest rate rise is "moving closer" as he appeared before the newly-formed Treasury Select Committee. "The point at which interest rates may begin to rise is moving closer with the performance of the economy, consistent growth above trend, a [...]
Inflation back to zero: Here’s what the analysts said July 14, 2015 Falling clothing and food prices sent Britain back into "noflation" in June, down from 0.1 per cent in May, according to figures releases today by the Office for National Statistics. Read more: Britain falls back into "noflation" territory Here's what analysts had to say: Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said: Core inflation (excluding energy, food, [...]
Misconceptions about housing: These five charts show how wrong we are about rent, house prices and deposits July 14, 2015 Hot on the heels of the Ipsos Mori poll showing that most of us have no idea how much raising children, buying a house, or paying for education cost, the research institute has dug deeper into our insights on housing – and it turns out we’re pretty far off. Just over three quarters of British [...]
UK inflation falls back to zero as Britain returns to “noflation” territory July 14, 2015 The falling price of clothes and food meant that Britain's consumer price index slipped back to zero last month, from a 0.1 per cent increase in May, and coming in line with economists' expectations. Figures released today by the Office for National Statistics showed clothing and footwear prices fell by 0.4 per cent in the [...]
Sir Howard Davies finally takes up his role on RBS’ board July 14, 2015 It's happened: Sir Howard Davies, erstwhile chair of the Airports Commission who had to put off his appointment to the board of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to put out his final, controversial, report, will finally take up his position with immediate effect, the bank said this morning. In a statement this morning RBS said [...]
Greece missed another IMF payment last night July 14, 2015 Raising virtually no eyebrows at all, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced last night that Greece has missed another payment – this time of about €456m (£323.9m). Lest we forget, Greece is already in arrears to the IMF, to the tune of €1.6bn, after it missed a payment at the end of June. A statement [...]
Dragon Oil share price rises as it shrugs off global oil price rout maintaining investment spend as production rises July 14, 2015 Dragon Oil has said it maintained capital expenditure and increased oil production in the six months to June, in the face of a global oil price rout that's forced a number of similar companies to cut investment spending. Read more: Dragon Oil shareholders breathing fire over £3.7bn ENOC takeover bid But shares in the Turkmenistan-focused oil [...]
Carillion trading stays strong despite pre-election jitters July 14, 2015 Carillion chief executive Richard Howson could be forgiven for sporting a slight smirk. After Balfour Beatty insisted it didn't need a £3bn merger with the construction giant last year, then issued a profit warning last week, it's a different story for its prospective benefactor, which this morning said it expected a significant increase in first-half revenue. It also [...]