SSP secures £70m Norway deal December 5, 2012 Food and drink provider SSP said yesterday it had expanded its business at Norway’s Trondheim Airport after it secured a £70m deal to operate six new outlets from next autumn. SSP, which specialises in outlets in travel locations, said the new outlets would include coffee shop Caffè Ritazza, Pizza Hut and convenience store Point. SSP, [...]
Watchdog’s Libor control plan unveiled December 5, 2012 REGULATORS will monitor Libor submissions and check up on potential conflicts of interest of those handing over the interest rate data, under new plans published by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) yesterday. The approved persons regime – which regulates who can take senior banking roles – will also be amended to include bankers responsible for [...]
City A.M. | MPC votes 7-2 against any new policy December 5, 2012 ALLISTER HEATH | CITY A.M. “No new quantitative easing and no further cut to rates. Quantitative easing (QE) needs to be halted – despite worrying signs that the economy has ground to a halt again, not least dire purchasing managers’ index (PMI) business survey figures – because it is a key contributor to the rise [...]
Treasury could owe the Bank of England £60bn over QE losses December 5, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT’S plan to take £35bn from the Bank of England’s quantitative easing (QE) scheme could “reverse with a vengeance”, analysts warned yesterday, with the state potentially owing the Bank £60bn. The QE programme has built up a cash surplus that the Treasury is taking to reduce new gilt issuance. But if the price of [...]
Ratesetters expected to hold steady December 5, 2012 THE BANK of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will keep monetary policy constant at its meeting concluding today, analysts have predicted. “The modestly improved manufacturing survey for November reinforces an already strong belief that the Bank will hold off on further quantitative easing (QE) at the conclusion of their December meeting,” said Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight [...]
US services growing speedily despite manufacturing slump December 5, 2012 ECONOMIC activity in the non-manufacturing sector grew for the 35th consecutive month in November, according to data yesterday from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). The ISM’s overall index for non-manufacturing activity grew 0.5 to hit 54.7 in November, substantially above the 50 level that indicates no change. Even more encouraging were the sub-indices for business [...]
Eurozone retail sales plummet 3.6pc over year December 5, 2012 RETAIL trade in the Eurozone came in for a hammering in October, as sales contracted sharply. Retail sales volumes plunged 1.2 per cent in just a month, Eurostat data published yesterday revealed, meaning that sales are 3.6 per cent lower than just a year ago. The worst fall came in Portugal, where sales dived some [...]
Growth gap between Europe and Asia widens December 5, 2012 THE ECONOMIC gulf between Europe and many fast-growing emerging markets widened in November, data for the service sector revealed yesterday. Eurozone members suffered further declines in business activity in services, according to business surveys from Markit and HSBC, just as services firms in China, India, Russia and the UAE raced ahead. The Eurozone services purchasing [...]
Ireland unveils another budget of tax hikes and spending cuts December 5, 2012 THE IRISH economy faces a fresh round of austerity measures as the government announced another swathe of tax hikes and spending cuts in its budget yesterday. The government, led by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, will make €3.5bn (£2.8bn) more savings, to add to €25bn already slashed since 2008, as part of one of the most disciplined austerity programmes [...]
Spain sells off 10-year bonds December 5, 2012 SPAIN was unable to sell all the bonds it wanted to in a sale of 10-year paper yesterday, but still saw big drops in bond yields. The Spanish treasury managed to shift €4.3bn out of the €3.5bn (£2.17bn) to €4.5bn of 10-year bonds it had planned to sell, but this did not stop yields falling [...]
