Chancellor struggling to rein in state borrowing October 21, 2014 THE GOVERNMENT borrowed £11.8bn in September – £1.6bn more than the same month last year. Chancellor George Osborne might have been hoping to offer one or two pre-election sweeteners in December’s Autumn Statement, but yesterday’s figures acted as a reminder of the limited fiscal leeway that he has at his disposal So far, this fiscal [...]
London house prices: Property market stalls in September October 21, 2014 The inexorable rise in London’s house market stalled in September according to Sequence, a national estate agency network. The number of transactions fell by one per cent, adding to the body of evidence pointing to a marked slowdown in the London housing market. “What we are seeing is a return to normality in the housing [...]
Chart-toppers Apple such a hit October 20, 2014 APPLE beat both analyst and company expectations as “off the charts” iPhone demand lead to bumper profits and revenues. Chief executive Tim Cook also said that 2014 was “one for the record books” after last nights release of earnings results for the three months to October. The company posted quarterly net profit of $8.5bn – an increase [...]
Mortgage loan growth slows October 20, 2014 THE HOUSING market continues to lose steam with the amount of mortgage lending falling for the second consecutive month. The Council of Mortgage Lenders yesterday estimated that gross mortgage lending reached £17.8bn in September – one per cent less than in August. However, this is 10 per cent higher than last year. “There is growing [...]
Hesitant firms not borrowing October 20, 2014 Lending to businesses continues to fall despite efforts to incentivise banks to lend, a Bank of England report said yesterday. Net lending to all firms fell by £3.9bn in the second quarter of 2014. This comes in spite of an extension of the Bank’s Funding for Lending scheme to January 2015. Lending to small and [...]
UK consumers’ confidence at a three-year high October 20, 2014 A HEALTHY jobs market has pushed consumer confidence to a three-year high, according to figures released this morning by the accountancy firm Deloitte. The Deloitte consumer tracker shows the net balance (the percentage of people saying “yes” minus those saying “no”) of respondents whose confidence had increased over the last three months rising to minus [...]
British economic expansion to slow as general election nears October 20, 2014 THE UK’s economic growth will slow next year but should remain at strong levels, a leading group of economists said today. In the second quarter of 2014 the UK had the fastest growing economy of any G7 nation, growing 3.2 per cent year-on-year. However, uncertainty surrounding May’s general election and the possibility of a referendum [...]
UK law firms’ revenues rise October 20, 2014 THE LEGAL sector is staging a comeback, with the majority of law firms reporting rising revenues, according to figures published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Of the firms surveyed, 80 per cent reported higher levels of income in 2014 compared to 63 per cent who had seen an improvement last year. This is the highest figure since [...]
Worries escalate over recession in the Eurozone as currency bloc slips further towards deflation October 16, 2014 Eurozone inflation hit a five-year low in September as weak spending continues to plague hopes of an economic recovery. Prices rose just 0.3 per cent year-on-year in September according to figures published yesterday by official data house Eurostat. The figure was down from 0.4 per cent in August and continues the single currency area’s apparent [...]
World markets gripped by panic as £46bn wiped off UK stocks in single day October 15, 2014 The fear stalking global markets escalated yesterday as traders fled risky assets for safe haven investments to weather the turmoil. With concerns over the strength of the global economy and an increasingly gloomy Eurozone, the UK’s blue chip equity market plunged to a 15-month low as the clock ticked over – wiping [...]