Foreign inspection of Athens provokes opposition to new rescue agreement February 21, 2012 ANGER in Greece has escalated over the country’s deal with its lenders – an agreement that will require changes to the Greek constitution, and see a foreign “task force” stationed in Athens to oversee conditional reforms and spending cuts. Support for the main coalition parties, which led negotiations over the deal, has sunk in recent [...]
Did Brussels get it right this time? February 21, 2012 So Greece has secured a second bailout in the latest effort by the Eurozone to deal with the escalating debt crisis. We are asking members of our Voice of the City panel, run with PoliticsHome.com, if they think the deal will work. Is this the beginning of a bright new start for Greece, or are [...]
Amec in £400m buyback plan February 21, 2012 AMEC yesterday announced a £400m share buyback and hiked its dividend on the strength of its 2011 profits. The engineer, which is a consultant to energy industry big hitters including Centrica and ConocoPhillips, said it had been buoyed by a string of acquisitions and was on the hunt for more. AMEC posted full-year earnings before [...]
Tarmac merger under fire from regulators February 21, 2012 THE Competition Commission (CC) said a proposed joint venture between Anglo American and Lafarge in Britain could damage competition for construction materials in some markets. Having struggled for more than three years to find a buyer for its Tarmac UK unit, which it bought as part of the larger Tarmac group in 2000, Anglo last [...]
Morgan Sindall profits slide 12 per cent but firm is hopeful about regeneration projects February 21, 2012 REGENERATION and construction firm Morgan Sindall said it was confident it could grow the business against a backdrop of tough market conditions, as the group unveiled a 12 per cent drop in profits. Profits before tax and exceptional items fell to £45.3m last year compared with £51.3m the previous year while revenues rose six per [...]
UK is ahead of deficit target February 21, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT’S deficit reduction plan is well ahead of schedule, with an unexpectedly large surplus in January bringing down the year’s projected borrowing figures, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed yesterday. The surplus hit £7.75bn in the month, up from £5.20bn last January, and taking borrowing in the financial year so far [...]
CBI: Cut red tape and boost infrastructure to help growth February 21, 2012 CUTTING the budget deficit is the biggest step the government can take to boost business confidence and promote economic recovery, the Confederation for British Industry (CBI) said today, arguing that while tweaks to taxes can help firms, the government should restrain from a budget spending splurge. New measures introduced at the Budget next month should [...]
Economic activity kept on rising through January in US and Japan February 21, 2012 ECONOMIC activity stayed above its trend rate in January, according to the Chicago Fed’s activity index published yesterday. Though the index fell to 0.22 from 0.54 in December, it continued to point to economic growth, with the three-month moving average rising from 0.06 to 0.14. Any figure below zero indicates below-trend growth. Employment growth appeared [...]
BEAN: LOOSE POLICY IS THE ONLY WAY February 21, 2012 Savers who have been hurt by low interest rates “have every right to feel aggrieved at losing out,” said the Bank of England’s Charlie Bean in a speech last night. However, they must remember low interest rates boost economic activity and create jobs for people who also “did nothing to create the financial crisis,” he [...]
Google offers real-time LSE data for free February 21, 2012 GOOGLE is taking on the world’s leading financial data firms after striking a deal to provide real-time prices of stocks on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) for free. The agreement means that users of the Google Finance website can now view a live feed of the “last trade price” – a service that was previously [...]