Alcoa stung by $384m charge January 9, 2014 ALCOA and a joint venture it controls have agreed to pay $384m (£233m) to resolve charges of bribing officials at a Bahraini state-controlled aluminum smelter. The two deals settle criminal and civil allegations that two of the joint venture’s subsidiaries bribed officials for years so they could supply raw materials to Aluminum Bahrain, or Alba. [...]
Hays sees signs of broad uptick in British hiring January 9, 2014 HAYS has become the latest recruitment company to declare a thaw in the UK jobs market, with net fees in the last quarter of 2013 up 10 per cent. Hiring has surged in UK construction and there are pockets of jobs growth in financial services, finance boss Paul Venables said. “In the City of London [...]
Surge in small deposits caused by 2013 house market recovery January 9, 2014 THE NUMBER of home loans with a low deposit has surged by 60 per cent over the last year, as the number of mortgage loans heads back to pre-crisis levels. According to chartered surveyors E.surv, there were 9,038 house purchases with a deposit that is worth less than 15 per cent of the value of [...]
Recovery does little to close UK trade deficit January 9, 2014 THE UK’S trade deficit stayed wide in November, with little indication that a recent boost to economic growth is feeding through to much of an improvement in exports. People in the UK imported £3.2bn more goods and services combined than they traded out of the country during the month, a minor improvement from October’s £3.5bn. While [...]
Draghi says no need for more euro loosening January 9, 2014 LOOSE monetary policy is at last getting through to the real economy, European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi said yesterday. The low rate of inflation in the Eurozone prompted some analysts to call for lower, or even negative, rates. Another option to push up consumer price inflation, which slowed to 0.8 per cent in the year [...]
Investors lap up Bankia’s debt as Spanish lender returns to market January 9, 2014 BANKIA paid less than initially planned for its five-year bond issued yesterday, as investors were unexpectedly keen for the debt. The lender raised €1bn (£825m) in the issuance, paying 235 basis points over mid-swaps. That represents a discount relative to the expected cost of mid-swaps plus 250 basis points, as the issue was oversubscribed. The [...]
Euro area optimism heads back to trend for first time since 2011 January 9, 2014 CONFIDENCE in the economy of the Eurozone is back to its long-term average level for the first time since the aborted hike in interest rates two and a half years ago. In December, the currency union’s economic sentiment indicator hit exactly 100 for the first time since the middle of 2011, indicating that optimism is [...]
Lautenschlager gets green light from ECB to take place on board January 9, 2014 BUNDESBANK deputy president Sabine Lautenschlager was confirmed as the European Central Bank board’s next member yesterday, as the existing members expressed no objections to her appointment. A statement released by the bank called Lautenschlager “a person of recognised standing and professional experience in monetary or banking matter” who would be suitable for the open spot [...]
US growth cuts number of new jobless claims January 9, 2014 THE NUMBER of new claims for US unemployment benefits dipped last week, as the American labour market continues to strengthen. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 330,000 in the week ending on 4 January, according to official statistics released yesterday. Economists had expected them to fall to just 335,000. The [...]
Former Kazakh banker set to be extradited January 9, 2014 A FORMER banker accused of embezzling up to $6bn (£3.6bn) from his employer should be extradited to Ukraine or Russia to face fraud charges, a French court ruled yesterday. Mukhtar Ablyazov, who was chairman of Kazakh bank BTA, had been in hiding since being sentenced to prison for contempt of court by an English judge [...]