CBI calls on business to save energy December 12, 2011 BOOSTING energy efficiency is good for business, and firms should work more closely with the government to cut costs and protect the environment, the Confederation for British Industry (CBI) announced yesterday. “There is a business case for acting on resource efficiency, and a threat to our growth prospects if we don’t,” said the CBI’s Neil [...]
Halifax: Housing market will stay weak December 12, 2011 WEAK economic growth and persistent high unemployment will hold down house prices through 2012, Halifax warned yesterday in its housing market outlook. Only record low interest rates will help stop the market falling further, the bank’s economists claimed, although mortgage funding pressures are expected to weaken this support. Prices will keep rising in London, according [...]
Indian factory output plunges December 12, 2011 INDUSTRIAL output fell for the first time in more than two years in India in October as consumer demand waned, adding pressure on the central bank to ease monetary or liquidity conditions, possibly as soon as Friday. Production at factories, mines and utilities plunged 5.1 per cent from a year earlier – the deepest drop [...]
PENSIONERS’ LIVING STANDARDS DIP December 12, 2011 HALF of pensioners have had to dip into savings to maintain their living standards, and a quarter have taken a hit to bail out their adult children, according to research out yesterday from MetLife. “If you are on a fixed income the effect of an unbudgeted financial shock like bailing out adult children is magnified,” [...]
Japan’s consumer morale drops December 12, 2011 Japanese consumer confidence in November worsened from the previous month, a Cabinet Office survey showed yesterday, suggesting that turmoil from Europe’s debt crisis and slowing global growth are weighing on sentiment. The survey’s sentiment index for general households, which includes views on incomes and jobs, was 38.1 in November, down from 38.6 in October. The [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 12, 2011 Cushman & Wakefield The global property consultant has expanded its EMEA sustainability team by appointing Justy Mathew as sustainability analyst, based in London. He joins from Pensions & Investment Research Consultants, where he worked on corporate social responsibility. Reporting to Andries van der Walt, head of sustainability for EMEA, Mathew will deliver sustainability consultancy for [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 12, 2011 ASSOCIATED BRITISH FOODS Panmure Gordon rates the owner of Silver Spoon and Twinings as a “buy” and said it remained confident of its 14 per cent earnings per growth forecast for the year. ABF last week confirmed that trading for the first two months of the year is in line with expectations and that it [...]
Time Warner offers €1bn for Endemol December 12, 2011 Time Warner has offered 1 billion euros (£847m) in cash to buy television production company Endemol, maker of Big Brother, which is trying to restructure about 2 billion euros of debt, an Endemol spokesman said on Monday. The spokesman said Endemol believed it had a future as an independent company and was no more likely [...]
S&P heaps more pressure on Eurozone December 12, 2011 Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s put more pressure on the Eurozone, with its chief economist saying time was running out for the currency bloc to resolve its debt problems and that it might need another financial shock to get it moving. Jean-Michel Six, chief economist of the agency that shocked financial markets last week by [...]
Banks stocks fall as FSA calls for tighter regulation December 12, 2011 The FTSE 100 was pegged back by miners and banks in early trading as the Eurozone continued the struggle to dig itself out of the sovereign debt crisis Domestically the decision by the Government to shun a Eurozone agreement on closer fiscal ties was sinking in with cracks appearing in the coalition over the move. [...]