Joblessness plunges as private sector job creation accelerates June 20, 2012 UNEMPLOYMENT tumbled in the three months to April, official figures showed yesterday, while the squeeze on incomes eased to a 30-month low. Employment rose 166,000 to 29.281m, while unemployment fell 51,000 to 2.615m, or 8.2 per cent – down from 8.4 per cent in the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. [...]
King votes for £50bn of QE to fight downturn June 20, 2012 SIR MERVYN King voted to switch the printing presses back on at the Bank of England this month, but was outvoted by his colleagues on the Monetary Policy Committee by the narrowest of margins, the MPC’s minutes revealed yesterday. Despite falling inflation and growing worries over the impact of the Eurozone crisis, the MPC voted [...]
Bank: Only manufacturers defy economic gloom sweeping UK June 20, 2012 THE SLUGGISH economy is showing no signs of improving and may even be slowing further, the Bank of England’s agents’ report warned yesterday. Consumer services sold just 0.6 per cent more in the three months to May than in the same period last year, and growth in the sector slowed further in the month to [...]
Merkel dismisses debt buying rescue scheme June 20, 2012 GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday shot down reports that Eurozone leaders at the G20 are planning for rescue funds to snap up the debt of distressed member states such as Italy and Spain. Yet later in the day the idea appeared to gain support from a senior official at the European Central Bank (ECB) who [...]
Disorderly Grexit may hurt insurers’ ratings June 20, 2012 EUROPE’S insurance sector should be able to withstand a Greek exit from the euro, according to a new report from rating agency Fitch, provided that the exit is “orderly”. “Most major European insurers have negligible direct exposure to the sovereign debt of Greece – typically less than one per cent of shareholders’ equity,” Chris Waterman, [...]
Greece’s rival politicians face challenges as coalition is formed June 20, 2012 THE conservative-led government that took power in Greece is promising to negotiate softer terms on its harsh international bailout and steer the country through its biggest crisis for four decades. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, a Harvard-educated economist, will head an alliance of his New Democracy party and Socialist Pasok rivals – the same discredited establishment [...]
Dutch claim a Europe Tobin Tax is unlikely June 20, 2012 A POSSIBLE European financial transaction tax would be limited in scope and could only apply to buyers of stocks, similar to a British stamp duty, a Dutch paper reported yesterday, citing unnamed diplomats. European finance ministers will tomorrow officially scrap a financial transaction tax, which would have applied to all financial transactions and to both [...]
DO YOU THINK THE BANK OF ENGLAND SHOULD PRINT MORE MONEY? June 20, 2012 JAMES BRISTOW JUNIPA NETWORKS “I think the government has to do something considering where we are. There has to be stimulated growth in the economy as finance is limited at the moment, especially in manufacturing. It’s about time it pulled its finger out.” JAN SELL MSS CAPITAL I think the Bank of England is running [...]
Bond relief for Spain and Italy as mood jumps June 20, 2012 SPANISH yields dipped below the crucial seven per cent level yesterday as the debt-stricken country insisted that it had no need for a full-blown bailout. Spain’s 10-year government bond yield, a gauge of the compensation investors demand to lend to the government, fell 27 basis points to 6.93 per cent. The dip came ahead of [...]
Obama urges the Eurozone to break the fever of debt crisis June 20, 2012 US PRESIDENT Barack Obama yesterday urged European leaders to “break the fever” of the escalating debt crisis, as he admitted that the ongoing turmoil could hinder his own re-election prospects later this year. “None of them are going to be a silver bullet that solves this thing entirely … in the next week or two [...]
