Stamp duty changes and Brexit uncertainty are weighing on prime London house prices – Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors March 10, 2016 Central London house prices stalled in February as the prices in the rest of the country and outer boroughs marched on. The difference between the number of property surveyors who said London prices had gone up minus those that had said they had gone down was three per cent. The same statistic for the UK [...]
PwC: UK economy to add another three million jobs over the next decade March 10, 2016 The sector will drive economic growth over the next decade as the UK creates another three million jobs, a financial services giant has forecast today. Business services – which includes IT, finance, legal services, recruitment and marketing – will be the main driver of growth, creating 1.5m jobs, PwC said. Manufacturing is forecast to decline [...]
Chancellor George Osborne could face £45bn budget black hole due to weaker economic growth March 9, 2016 Economists have warned weaker-than-expected economic growth will create a black hole in the public finances, forcing Chancellor George Osborne into further austerity measures in next week’s budget. Osborne was given a unexpected boost in November when the government’s fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), gave him an extra £27bn over the current parliament. [...]
Niesr: The economy is picking up after a sluggish end to 2015 March 9, 2016 Economic growth slowed in the three months to February, but there are some signs it is picking up again. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said today it believes the economy grew 0.3 per cent between December and February. It marks a slowdown from their previous estimate for growth between November and [...]
UK manufacturing output rebounds in January March 9, 2016 UK manufacturing output bounced back in January, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics this morning. The sector's output increased 0.7 per cent compared with December. Factory output suffered a sharp drop in December and contracted over the whole of 2015. Total industrial production, which includes mining and quarrying as well as manufacturing, also rebounded, rising [...]
Negative interest rates come with risks, warns Bank of England’s Martin Weale March 8, 2016 A Bank of England official has warned there are risks of negative side-effects if interest rates are slashed below zero. Negative interest rates are in place in the UK’s biggest export market, the Eurozone, as well as several other countries. But Martin Weale, a member of the Bank of England's nine-strong monetary policy committee, told an audience [...]
German industrial production rises at sharpest rate since 2009 March 8, 2016 Industrial production in Germany, the Eurozone's largest economy, jumped 3.3 per cent in January on the month before, figures released this morning show. Production was lifted by construction, which rose seven per cent. Manufacturing output climbed 3.2 per cent, the data from German statistical office Eurostat shows. Industrial production makes up nearly a third of the German economy's [...]
Eurozone economic growth confirmed at four-year high in 2015 despite end of year slowdown March 8, 2016 The Eurozone economy grew at its strongest rate for four years in 2015 despite slowing toward the end of the year. The economy was 1.6 per cent bigger last year than in 2014, according to data released by EU statistical office Eurostat this morning. However, the economy expanded at a slower rate in the second half the year. The [...]
More borrowers opt for fixed rate deals as mortgage rates hit record low March 8, 2016 Mortgage rates have dropped to the cheapest on record, according to figures released by the Bank of England this morning. The overall interest rate on new mortgage lending in the final three months of 2015 fell to 2.71 per cent, the lowest since the series began in 2007. The interest lenders are making on the total stock [...]
Federal Reserve vice chair Stanley Fischer says an increase in inflation is stirring March 7, 2016 Inflation in the US could be about to begin rising back up to its two per cent target, the vice chair of the Federal Reserve said today. Stanley Fischer said he disagreed with the idea that the link between unemployment and inflation had be severed. "Since the US economy is now below our two per cent inflation target, and [...]