Fed’s Bullard says no to rate hikes while inflation is below 1.5 per cent August 23, 2013 The Federal Reserve's James Bullard has said that "we don't have to be in any hurry" to make changes to policy and that he'd prefer to be "cautious" and for the central bank to "take our time". Bullard has said that a 1.5 per cent inflation floor before a rate increase would should the the [...]
Ex-Cyprus central bank chief says euro crisis will flare up after German elections August 23, 2013 Athanasios Orphanides, former chief at Cyprus' central bank, has said that the island economy was destroyed by delays in finalising the bailout package it received. Cyprus has seen its biggest industry – banking – wiped out with capital controls overstaying their welcome. While introduced as a temporary measure months ago, they have not yet been [...]
Worker pay sees biggest quarterly growth in 13 years August 23, 2013 Growth in UK incomes, including wages, salaries and pension contributions, was up 2.4 per cent in the second quarter of this year. That's the biggest quarterly increase in compensation in 13 years. The Office for National Statistics' second estimate of these figures showed that those in employment aged 16 or over reached a record high [...]
UK sees signs of rebalancing as second quarter growth is revised up August 23, 2013 UK growth has been revised upwards from 0.6 per cent to 0.7 per cent in the second quarter, as the Office for National Statistics releases its second GDP estimate. The increase "can be attributed to small upwards revisions across a number of the main industrial groupings", with manufacturing output revised up at 0.7 per cent [...]
Second quarter growth was higher than thought at 0.7 per cent August 23, 2013 UK GDP growth has been confirmed at 0.7 per cent for the second quarter, beating economist estimates and an increase on the previous estimate of 0.6 per cent. It's not all good news though – as government spending is also up by 0.9 per cent. This second estimate of GDP growth by the Office for [...]
Before the open – 23/08 August 23, 2013 The FTSE is expected to open slightly up after avoiding a fourth consecutive day of losses yesterday. Kit Juckes, Societe Generale on today's session: There's a bit of TGIF feel to all this: The overnight session is quieter, with equity markets and EM currencies bouncing, nominally on the back of yesterday’s crop of stronger economic [...]
Regulator finds six carpet and furniture retailers misleading consumers with false price cuts August 23, 2013 The Office of Fair trading has found that six high street carpet and furniture retailers are misleading customers by artificially inflating prices to promote sales and price cuts. The OFT found systematic examples of reference pricing amongst, where the price is artificially inflated, within the industry. During the period that the OFT monitored these six [...]
German finance minister Schaeuble repeats warning that Greece will need fresh rescue August 23, 2013 German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has repeated his warning that the Greek economy will need another aid program, and that this won't involve a further haircut. Previously Schaeuble said that the initial haircut was "unique" and there is speculation that this third bailout will be much smaller than those before. The minister said that it [...]
New York markets paralysed August 22, 2013 TRADING in more than 3,000 US firms was suspended for over three hours yesterday, as a mysterious technical issue brought the Nasdaq stock exchange to a halt. The unprecedented suspension just after midday left investors unable to trade popular tech shares such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Nasdaq blamed a problem with distributing share price [...]
Business leaders praise increase in students taking traditional GCSE subjects August 22, 2013 BUSINESS groups yesterday praised the increased number of students taking GCSEs in traditional subjects – but warned Britain is still lagging far behind when it comes to technology skills. More than 600,000 teenagers received their results yesterday, with figures showing continued growth in the number of entries for science subjects. There was also a sharp rise [...]
