Government plans fuel duty freeze until 2015 September 30, 2013 Chancellor George Osborne has announced that the coalition government plans to freeze fuel duty until 2015. He said that relies upon the government being able to find the savings necessary. Osborne slammed Labour leader Ed Miliband's plan for energy sector price controls, saying that they would simply see bills increase in the short and the [...]
PDL ministers resign says premier’s office September 30, 2013 Italy's premier's office has confirmed Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party has seen an en masse resignation of ministers, as the governmental chaos of the last few days rattles on. This morning, European shares fell following Italian cabinet resignations, making the possibility of a new election ever-more real. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 was down [...]
Economists see jobless recovery in the Eurozone September 30, 2013 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News have estimated that unemployment in the Eurozone stayed at a record high of 12.1 per cent in August. Tomorrow the EU's office of statistics will publish the jobless numbers at 11am. Unemployment is predicted to reach 12.3 per cent in the last quarter of this year and may remain [...]
Telecom Italia up on news that CEO Bernabe could leave this Thursday September 30, 2013 Telecom Italia is one of the only stocks moving up in Italy today – as market rumours suggest that CEO Franco Bernabe is set to resign this Thursday. Most of Italy's FTSE MIB is in freefall – but Telecom Italia is trading over three per cent above its previous close. Earlier this week Bernabe told [...]
US medical device tax may face repeal in debt-ceiling negotiations September 30, 2013 The controversial medical device tax may face repeal in the heat of US debt-ceiling negotiations. Over the weekend Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a bill to keep the Federal government running past midnight on Monday by adding two amendments. The first was the delay to the implementation of Obamacare by a year, the [...]
Eurozone inflation falls with marked CPI decrease for Italy September 30, 2013 Inflation softens for the Eurozone as the consumer price index misses expectations of 1.2 per cent for September, coming in at 1.1 per cent, year-on-year. This is down from the previous figure of 1.3 per cent. The core figure, which excludes volatile components like food, energy, alcohol and tobacco, was at 1.0 per cent year-on-year; [...]
Italian political turmoil hits markets and overshadows reports of upturn September 30, 2013 Italian government bonds and shares have slumped this morning following Silvio Berlusconi's decision to take five ministers out of Enrico Letta's already fragile coalition at the weekend, and has left the Eurozone's third-largest economy without a functioning government. Berlusconi, who may be ejected from the senate because of tax fraud, ordered the five ministers to [...]
Goldman Sachs warns US government shutdown will hit growth September 30, 2013 Goldman Sachs has warned that a two day shutdown of the US Federal government could reduce fourth quarter GDP (annualised) by 0.1 percentage points, and that a shutdown as long as one week could see GDP take a 0.3 percentage point hit. Over the weekend Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a [...]
Mortgage numbers rise to February 2008 highs September 30, 2013 Mortgage numbers have swelled in the UK this August – hitting 66-month highs. They're up from 60,624 to 62,226 in a single month, above analyst estimates of a rise to 61,500. That's before the accelerated second stage of Help to Buy even kicks in. Yet at 62,226, mortgage approvals stand at 73.5 per cent of [...]
BP oil spill trial continues with question of how much oil was lost September 30, 2013 Oil giant BP is due today to begin the second phase of the civil trial over its 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The Deepwater Horizon rig explosion killed 11 workers and blackened hundreds of miles of beaches. Today, the debate will be on how much oil was spilt. The US government will argue that, [...]