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 [...]
Any Other Business – 23/08 August 22, 2013 Rapper Drake is credited with making the acronym YOLO the hashtag phrase du jour, and now legal recruitment firm Taylor Root has had the honour of officially killing it off. In a recruitment advert for legal partners, the firm has plastered YOLO with the cringey bracketed explanation “you only live once” over a request for [...]
Government statisticians will estimate number of zero hour contracts August 22, 2013 After growing politicial opposition to zero hours contracts, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has announced that it will now be providing an estimate of the number employed on them. From autumn 2013, one of ONS’s large-scale monthly business surveys will include some questions on zero-hours contracts so as to obtain robust data directly from [...]
US manufacturing order growth hits a seven month high August 22, 2013 US manufacturing order growth has hit a seven month high in Augustaccording to a Markit purchasing managers' index (PMI) flash estimate. Up from 53.7 to 53.9, ahead of an estimate of an increase to 53.8. Commenting on the flash PMI data, Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit said: The U.S. manufacturing sector saw only modest [...]
US jobless claims see lowest four week average since November 2007 August 22, 2013 Weekly US jobless numbers have seen initial jobless claims rise from 323,000 (revised from 320,000) to 336,000, while analysts had estimated a smaller increase to 322,000. Continuing jobless claims rose to 2,999m from 2.969m, despite an estimated fall to 2.963m.
