Price war cut food inflation December 6, 2011 CUSTOMERS are benefiting from intense competition between supermarkets, according to data out today from the British Retail Consortium. Food price inflation fell for a second consecutive month to 4.0 per cent in the year to November, compared with 4.2 per cent in October. Overall shop prices rose 2.0 per cent in the twelve-month period, down [...]
Coalition is confused about business December 6, 2011 WE love you – actually, no, we hate you. That, roughly speaking, seems to be the government’s attitude to business and business leaders. The signals are so mixed that they are utterly incomprehensible. Take tax policy and incentives. The official position is – well, there isn’t really one. The coalition is likely to retain the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 6, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES CLARKE REJECTS CALL FOR EU POWER GRAB Ken Clarke has told Conservative eurosceptics to forget about repatriation of powers from Brussels at this week’s European Union summit, while urging David Cameron to focus on “how to maintain the financial stability of the western world.” The justice secretary’s comments, in an interview with the [...]
Henderson in legal row December 6, 2011 A GROUP of pension funds is suing asset manager Henderson over the handling of its investment in construction firm John Laing in 2006. The full list is not yet known but the pension funds of the BBC, Tesco, BAE Systems and Bupa, as well as Kent and South Tyneside councils, were among those known to [...]
Lehman set to exit bankruptcy December 6, 2011 Lehman Brothers Holdings Corp, now just the odds and ends of the global financial behemoth that collapsed in September 2008, yesterday received court approval yesterday to exit bankruptcy early next year. Lehman may now wind down its remaining operations, US bankruptcy judge James Peck told a hearing in New York. Unsecured creditors, depending on their [...]
Job placements at 25-month low December 6, 2011 British recruitment firms said the number of people placed in permanent jobs fell at the fastest pace since 2009 in November, highlighting the pressures on the economy at a time of public spending cuts and worries about the Eurozone. A survey for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and accountant KPMG released today shows that [...]
EC boss says nations can’t block treaty December 6, 2011 MOST countries will not get a vote on tighter fiscal integration, allowing Germany to force through new financial controls across the Eurozone, European Council president Herman Van Rompuy said yesterday in a report sent to EU leaders ahead of tomorrow’s two-day summit. US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner added his weight to efforts to resolve the [...]
Cameron pledges to protect the City December 6, 2011 PRIME Minister David Cameron has vowed to protect the City by blocking any revised EU treaty if European leaders do not provide safeguards for Britain’s financial services. “I will not sign a treaty that does not have those safeguards in it, around things like the importance of the single market and financial services,” he told [...]
S&P rating cut looms for EFSF December 6, 2011 EUROPE’S financial stability facility could be downgraded because its guarantors’ credit ratings are all looking shaky, Standard and Poor’s said yesterday, endangering any future efforts to save indebted governments. The warning came as French Prime Minister François Fillon claimed a Eurozone break-up could cost “25 per cent of GDP for the strongest countries and about [...]
Greek leaders agree budget December 6, 2011 GREECE’S new coalition government last night passed an austerity budget for 2012, aimed at shrinking its debt mountain with tax hikes and spending cuts. Three major parties backing technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos solidly voted for the budget plan, a package of deeply unpopular measures needed to cut the deficit and show foreign lenders the [...]