NEWS | IN BRIEF January 21, 2010 Hypo launches “bad bank” Nationalised German property lender Hypo Real Estate plans to shift about €210bn in assets to a “bad bank” in the second half of 2010, its operating unit said yesterday. “The HRE Group intends to transfer operations no longer strategically required for the group’s realignment, as well as additional balance sheet items, [...]
Public purse in record deficit January 21, 2010 Pressure is building on Alistair Darling to bring the fiscal deficit under control after the government finances recorded a record £15.7bn shortfall in December. December tends to be a poor month for the public finances. The figure compares with £13.8bn a year earlier and was better than the £18.7bn gap expected in the City, but [...]
Manufacturing output grows for the first time in two years January 21, 2010 MANUFACTURERS expanded their production for the first time in two years in the three months to January as demand for UK exports increased, the Confederation for Business Industry (CBI) said yesterday in its quarterly Industrial Trends survey. A net 11 per cent of manufacturers said output had risen over the past quarter, raising hopes that [...]
Mortgages: Lending to home buyers and businesses picks up January 21, 2010 GROSS mortgage lending in December showed annual growth for the first time since October 2007, the Council for Mortgage Lenders (CML) said yesterday. Total lending reached £13.7bn last month, a three per cent rise on December 2008 and a 14 per cent gain on November. Paul Samter, economist at the CML, said: “Evidence suggests that [...]
Pawnbroker’s profits soar in new “gold rush” January 21, 2010 THE UK’s largest pawnbroking chain H&T has said demand among recession-hit consumers to trade their unwanted gold for cash had more than tripled scrap profits last year. H&T now expects full-year profits at the top end of forecasts as the price of gold surges. The company offers a postal service, but mainly trades its cash [...]
Powerhouse China slams on the brakes January 21, 2010 BLISTERING growth in the fourth quarter saw China easily beat its 2009 growth target, putting it on course to overtake Japan to become the world’s second largest economy. GDP surged an annualised 10.7 per cent between October and December, compared with a year earlier. This fell slightly short of market forecasts of 10.9 per cent, [...]
Annual growth in the money supply hits a six-year low January 21, 2010 DECEMBER might have experienced sharply accelerating inflation but the supply of broad money (M4) in the economy fell at the fastest monthly pace since records began in 1982, new data from the Bank of England revealed yesterday. The supply of broad money, which measures cash, current account deposits, savings deposits and time-restricted deposits, fell 1.1 [...]
Tories to reduce most of deficit with deep cuts January 21, 2010 THE Tories will pay down the bulk of Britain’s yawning budget deficit with spending cuts – not tax rises. Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond also said that the party would make deeper cuts than Labour in a bid to pay down the budget deficit more quickly. “Clearly we’ve said we will go [...]
Eurozone: Economic activity posts slower pace of growth January 21, 2010 ACTIVITY in the eurozone grew at a much slower pace than expected in January but remained firmly in expansionary territory, a leading economic survey showed yesterday. The Markit purchasing managers’ indices (PMI) for the single-currency region revealed that the index of composite activity fell for the first time in 10 months to 53.6, above the [...]
US: Good outlook offsets job data and output worry January 21, 2010 JOBLESS claims rose unexpectedly last week to 482,000 as a backlog of applications from the holidays were processed. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said that business activity had fallen sharply in January to 15.2 from 22.5. But any concerns were eased by the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicator, which rose 1.1 per cent [...]
