Ireland’s central bank lays down tougher goals on mortgage debt September 17, 2013 IRELAND’S central bank and bailout lenders set the country’s lenders tougher targets yesterday to solve a mortgage arrears crisis that has left one in five of all Irish homeowners unable to repay their loans. Ireland took an €85bn bailout in 2010 after rescuing its banks, whose easy lending had fuelled a credit bubble, and the [...]
Costa Concordia hauled upright September 17, 2013 ENGINEERS off the Italian cost have successfully righted the stricken Costa Concordia in a tense two-day mission to haul the cruise liner off the rocks. The so-called parbuckling technique had never been tried on so large a ship in such a tricky position. Work has now started on reinforcing the hull so investigators can enter [...]
Merkel gets last minute boost in confidence data September 17, 2013 HOPES for strong German growth and a Eurozone recovery have surged on upbeat market confidence, according to data published yesterday. The figures come just days before the German general election on Sunday and provide another boost for incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel. The forward-looking Zew indicator of economic sentiment in Germany shot up 7.6 points to [...]
Eurozone exports drop as weak economy raises chance of easing September 17, 2013 HOPES for strong German growth and a Eurozone recovery have surged on upbeat market confidence, according to data published yesterday. The figures come just days before the German general election on Sunday and provide another boost for incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel. The forward-looking Zew indicator of economic sentiment in Germany shot up 7.6 points to [...]
Stable inflation fuels taper talk in the States September 17, 2013 INFLATION readings in the US barely rose in August, but gains in rents and medical care costs pointed to a stabilisation in underlying inflation that could allow the Federal Reserve to start trimming its bond purchases. The Labor Department said yesterday its consumer price index (CPI) edged up 0.1 per cent last month after rising [...]
Greece’s Prime Minister does not expect living standards to recover fully for another six years September 17, 2013 GREECE should return to economic growth in 2014, ending six years of recession, European Commission boss Jose Manuel Barroso predicted yesterday. But the country’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras warned it will take another six years for living standards in the troubled Mediterranean country to return to pre-crash levels. He argues this is a more optimistic [...]
Mediobanca’s losses are lower than feared despite writedowns September 17, 2013 ITALIAN investment bank Mediobanca ended its financial year posting a net loss on the back of heavy writedowns on equity investments but the market yesterday welcomed moves to clean up its balance sheet. Mediobanca, which has for decades played a pivotal role in helping to forge Italian capitalism, announced in June a radical change of [...]
Royalty growth remains strong for Imagination September 17, 2013 IMAGINATION Technologies, the British graphics and microprocessor maker that counts Apple among its customers, said yesterday that its outlook for licensing revenue and royalty growth remain strong for the year. The company reaffirmed their guidance of £30m to £35m in licensing revenue, excluding the MIPS business that it acquired last year for $100m (£62.8m). “Our [...]
Winklevoss twins can see Bitcoin becoming a country’s currency September 17, 2013 CAMERON and Tyler Winklevoss, currently making headlines with plans to launch a Bitcoin fund, claimed yesterday that they could see the digital currency becoming a country’s official money. “The next step for Bitcoin is potentially becoming the currency of a country,” Tyler Winklevoss said. The twin brothers, famous for their history with Facebook, were speaking [...]
London falls to third in world for office costs September 17, 2013 LONDON is now the third most expensive city in the world to rent space for a business, having been knocked out of second place by New York in the first six months of the year, a report out today shows. Hong Kong has kept its title as the world’s dearest property rental market, though prices [...]