Report slams border chaos as workers strike May 10, 2012 HEATHROW Airport managed to avoid unusually long queues at immigration yesterday in spite of strike action by border guards. The biggest queue recorded by owner BAA was a whopping one hour and 42 minutes long – more than twice the Home Office’s target, but currently par for the course at the poorly-staffed border. Hundreds of [...]
CITY VIEWS DO YOU HAVE ANY SYMPATHY FOR PUBLIC SECTOR STRIKERS? May 10, 2012 EMMA IBELL NOMURA No. They get a pretty good deal anyway. Their hours aren’t the same as in the private sector – what you put in is what you get out. The whole system is anarchic. KATRINA SARTORIUS EUROCLEAR Yes I do, I know people who have stuck it out in the public sector because of [...]
Growth fund is said to cost £33,000 a job May 10, 2012 THE coalition’s flagship fund to boost economic growth is attacked as an expensive let-down in an official report published today. The initial £1.4bn phase of the regional growth fund will deliver 41,000 jobs at an average cost of £33,000 each – broadly similar to previous job creation schemes, the National Audit Office said. The expected [...]
Crisis-hit Eurozone economies set to fall even further behind May 10, 2012 EUROPE’S troubled economies are falling further and further behind those in the rest of the continent and the world, two reports showed yesterday, suggesting the pain of the Eurozone crisis will not be over any time soon. The OECD’s leading index showed the German and British economies at a turning point, and likely to gather [...]
UniCredit’s capital base gives it a boost May 10, 2012 ITALY’S largest bank yesterday reported that it is now ahead of European capital requirements in its first results since its €7.5bn (£6bn) capital increase earlier this year. The lender also reported a 12.8 per cent rise in net profits on last year, bringing in €914m – but nearly half of the gain was due to [...]
ECB official warns interest rates may rise to fight high inflation May 10, 2012 NATIONAL governments spending too much in the good years and the structure of the Eurozone itself are to blame for the current crisis, a top European Central Bank (ECB) official said yesterday, warning that the ECB will put up interest rates if it needs to keep inflation under control. Economist Peter Praet told a banking [...]
Central bank calls for EU budget power May 10, 2012 THE EUROPEAN Central Bank (ECB) urged European governments yesterday to give the bloc’s institutions the power to force Eurozone member states to take the necessary action to rein in deficits. The future of the 17-nation currency bloc is in question as some countries, after years of overspending, struggle to get their budgets under control and [...]
Industry fall hits French growth May 10, 2012 Weak industrial output figures for March yesterday added to signs that France’s Socialist president-elect Francois Hollande will inherit a sickly economy when he takes office next week, supporting his calls for more policy focus on growth. The Bank of France said it expects no growth in the second quarter as statistics agency INSEE revealed industrial [...]
Surprise rise in Italian output May 10, 2012 Italian industrial output unexpectedly rose 0.5 per cent in March, official data showed yesterday, but first quarter output was still down for the third quarter running, confirming the economy remains mired in recession. The March data beat a forecast of a 0.2 per cent output drop, but analysts said first quarter GDP, published next week, [...]
NAB’s British business drags down profits May 10, 2012 NATIONAL Australia Bank (NAB), the country’s top lender by assets, yesterday posted record first half earnings as higher trading, fee income and a rising share of the mortgage market countered losses in its UK operations. While NAB and rivals ANZ and Westpac have reported strong headline numbers for the half-year, all saw margins squeezed as [...]
