Netflix bins DVD spin-off plan October 10, 2011 Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings yesterday performed a U-turn on a three-week old plan to separate his company’s DVD rental business and online video streaming service, sending the firm’s stock up seven per cent in early trading. Hastings’ reversal of a decision to move its DVD rentals to a separate business called Qwikster was announced [...]
US economists awarded joint Nobel prize October 10, 2011 AMERICAN economists Christopher Sims and Thomas Sargent were jointly awarded this year’s Nobel prize for economics, it was announced yesterday. The two have been praised for their work on cause and effect analysis. In awarding the 2011 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, as the prize is formally known, the [...]
Eurozone countries deliver a surprise jump in industrial production growth October 10, 2011 FRENCH and Italian industrial output was surprisingly strong in August, boosting prospects for third-quarter growth in the Eurozone’s second- and third-largest economies, although analysts warned that this may be masking underlying stagnation. French output posted a 0.5 per cent monthly increase compared with forecasts of a one per cent decline, while output in Italy leapt [...]
Gloomy outlook for UK firms October 10, 2011 FEARS of economic stagnation in the UK were heightened today, after a leading survey of businesses reported an increasingly gloomy outlook. The third quarter results “point to a deterioration in the economic situation, with concerning signs of stagnation in the domestic economy”, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said. And the planned “rebalancing” of the [...]
Miles: QE2 could relieve banks’ funding problems October 10, 2011 THE CHANCE that inflation will fall below the two per cent target in the medium term is rising, monetary policy committee (MPC) member David Miles told the Royal Economics Society last night. Since the Bank of England’s inflation report was published in August, “news on the economy has been overwhelmingly negative”, Miles said. He fears [...]
Economic worries prevent houses coming to market October 10, 2011 ECONOMIC concerns are causing house-owners to hold back from placing their properties on the market, a new survey reports today. Supply to the housing market fell last month, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said. Five per cent more surveyors reported that supply of property fell rather than rose, in September. Yet despite a [...]
Eurozone investor morale sinks October 10, 2011 Investor confidence in the Eurozone has dipped to more than a two-year low this month, according to the latest Sentix index, released yesterday. The Germany-based Sentix said that the index sank to -18.5 from -15.4 last month. Some economists, however, had expected an even steeper drop.
Downturn expected in the OECD October 10, 2011 Wealthy states remain on course for an economic downturn, the Organisation for Co-operation and Economic Development said yesterday. The OECD’s leading indicators, which attempt to forecast changes in the economy six months ahead, decline for the fifth straight month in August. The indicator fell 0.5 points for the OECD as a whole. The UK’s indicator [...]
Prices pressures rise in Norway October 10, 2011 Norway’s energy-adjusted consumer prices rose 1.3 per cent year-on-year in September, up from 0.8 per cent in August, the central bank said yesterday. August was originally reported up 0.9 per cent year-on-year. Core inflation also rebounded, rising by 1.2 per cent year on year from 0.8 per cent in August, official data showed.
UK set to miss poverty targets October 10, 2011 Pegging state benefits to a lower measure of inflation will contribute to a rise in poverty, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is expected to argue today. The IFS forecasts absolute child poverty to reach 23 per cent by 2020-21, drastically missing the state’s “supposedly legally binding target” of five per cent. The UK’s dire [...]
