Government told to lay out deficit plans March 7, 2010 THE British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) has urged the government to come up with a credible plan for cutting the budget deficit or risk having the UK’s credit rating damaged. The BCC said the plan must include freezing the total public sector wage bill and bringing public pensions into line with the private sector. The [...]
Darling says he will resist public spending cuts March 7, 2010 ALISTAIR Darling has vowed to stick by his plans for the economy and resist calls from the business community to cut the deficit. The Chancellor said yesterday that the focus of Britain’s forthcoming budget would be on securing the recovery and growth, adding that Conservative plans for immediate cuts would pose “an unacceptable risk to [...]
CBI: Treasury must spell out fiscal strategy March 7, 2010 LABOUR must use the coming Budget to set out its spending plans in much greater detail to boost economic stability and confidence in the public finances, the Confederation for British Industry (CBI) will say today. In a letter sent last week to the chancellor Alistair Darling, the director general of the CBI Richard Lambert called [...]
WHAT IMPACT WILL POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY HAVE ON THE MARKETS? March 7, 2010 JONATHAN LOYNES | CAPITAL ECONOMICS “Even under a hung parliament, at least some form of additional plan to improve the fiscal position is likely to be forthcoming after the election. As and when fiscal worries finally ease, at least some of the current pressure on the pound should be relieved.” MICHAEL SAUNDERS| CITIGROUP “We doubt [...]
Lloyds close to sell-off of HBOS assets March 7, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group is inching closer to a decision on the disposal of its HBOS Integrated Finance investment vehicle, over a year after the division was first put up for sale as part of a drive to manage down the bank’s balance sheet in the wake of the crisis. Lloyds is in discussions with a [...]
WPP is past the worst as it looks to World Cup for boost March 7, 2010 WPP is looking to the World Cup to kick start the weakend advertising industry. The advertising giant, headed by Sir Martin Sorrell, is hoping that the World Cup, Shanghai Expo, US mid-term elections and UK general election will give it a platform to crawl out of the advertising recession. The world’s biggest advertising firm last [...]
Tournament isn’t Holy Grail March 7, 2010 WPP hopes the World Cup will help prevent yet another annus horribilis for advertising. The signs are good; the advertising market will remain almost flat this year, a reversal from the steep declines seen in 2007 and 2008. This will be largely aided by a dramatic spike in revenue – as much as 16 per [...]
More banking roles on offer, says agency March 7, 2010 RECRUITER Michael Page said the UK’s financial institutions were back on the hiring trail after indicating it had been asked to fill twice as many banking roles as compared to a year ago. The London based group said that by the end of 2009 recruitment in the banking sector was showing signs of improvement and [...]
Populist politicians must stop punishing City March 7, 2010 AT FIRST glance it is hard to see how goings on in the City can have any bearing on the UK’s thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). On one hand you have the huge multi-national banks with which the City is usually associated employing tens of thousands of people globally and issuing multi-million pound [...]
Matalan owner in line for payout March 7, 2010 JOHN Hargreaves, founder of discount clothing and homeware chain Matalan, could reap a £250m dividend as part of a refinancing deal. Hargreaves is reported to be looking at a £525m refinancing after the failure of the Lancashire-based company’s £1.5bn sale last year. One of the most substantial for a British retail company, the payout would [...]
