Brussels’ new budget vice for the Eurozone September 26, 2013 Speaking this morning, former European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said that Europe is halfway to recovery. His words come at the same time as unprecedented fiscal temerity from the European Commission as it announces its intention to tighten its grip on members' budgets. On employment, Trichet stressed that EU unemployment is absolutely unacceptable and [...]
EU regulation may delay lifesaving devices by five years September 26, 2013 The European Parliament's committee for environment health and food safety has voted for stricter regulation controlling the process of approving medical devices. The directive includes tougher conformity assessment bodies, a new system of labelling medical devices and a new body called the 'Assessment Committee for Medical Devices' to examine potentially high risk devices. The new [...]
Regulator fines Clydesdale for botched mortgages September 26, 2013 Clydesdale Bank has been fined £8.9 million for failing to treat its mortgage customers fairly. The Financial conduct Authority (FCA) issued the fine after customers were not informed clearly their rights following the bank's miscalculation of repayments on over 42,500 mortgages. In April 2009, Clydesdale discovered an error in its repayment calculation method for customers [...]
Goldman Sachs hikes UK growth forecasts September 26, 2013 Goldman Sachs has upped its growth projections for the UK from its February forecast. The UK is now forecast to grow 2.3 per cent in 2014 up from two per cent, 2.5 per cent in 2015 up from 2.3 per cent and 2.7 per cent in 2016 up from the 2.6 per cent. They forecasts [...]
Drinks company Stock Spirits plans debut London share float September 26, 2013 Stock Spirits, which owns a number of vodka brands and other alcoholic beverages, announced its intention to go ahead with an initial public offering of shares to institutional investors in October. (Release) The company, whose main markets are Poland, the Czech Republic and Italy, wants to raise £52m from new shares in order to reduce [...]
Second quarter GDP confirmed – but revisions see annual growth lower September 26, 2013 UK GDP revisions see growth unchanged at 0.7 per cent in the second quarter, inline with analyst estimates which expected no change from the preliminary reading. Revisions have seen GDP to the second quarter drop from 1.5 per cent to 1.3 per cent however. Growth in the first quarter has been revised up from 0.3 [...]
Mixed bag as travel companies release expectations for year September 26, 2013 Whilst Thomas Cook books fewer holidays for the UK, and anticipates political disruption to travel, Tui Travel sees 11 per cent growth and plenty of winter bookings. Travel agent Thomas Cook has seen UK holiday bookings down three per cent on last year, with a capacity reduction of 2.5 per cent. (Release) Summer trading has [...]
LSE sees equity trading rise by five per cent as derivatives drop September 26, 2013 The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has reported UK Equity value trading up five per cent in the five months ending 31st August 2013, as compared to the same period last year (release). Derivatives trading was dramatically down by 31 per cent from last year. Equity capital raised amounted to to £9.3bn with a total [...]
Italian retail sales decline continues – and it’s worse than expected September 26, 2013 Italian retail sales are weak for July, down 0.3 per cent in one month. Analysts had been expecting a contraction of just 0.1 per cent after a 0.2 per cent fall in the month before. Food goods sales fell by 0.1 per cent, with non food goods dropping by 0.3 per cent. Italian retail sales [...]
US government shutdown could cause tapering confusion September 26, 2013 US Federal Reserve calculations over the beginning of tapering – a scaling back of its asset purchases program – could be hampered by fiscal squabbles over the Federal debt ceiling. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has already referred to the lack of clarity as a hindrance on monetary policy decisions: The extent of restrictive fiscal policies [...]