Surge in food prices keeps inflation high August 17, 2010 RISING food prices offset a drop in the cost of fuel in July but annual inflation remained stubbornly above 3 per cent in July. The strong inflation figures forced Bank of England governor Mervyn King to pen his second letter of explanation to chancellor George Osborne and to admit that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) [...]
BoE heads for row over UK stimulus August 16, 2010 BANK OF ENGLAND governor Mervyn King will be readying his pen this morning to write his second letter to chancellor George Osborne if annual inflation was, as expected, above three per cent last month. City economists expect headline consumer price index (CPI) inflation to ease to 3.1 per cent in July from 3.2 per cent [...]
Russian grain ban fuels fears of food price inflation August 15, 2010 CONCERNS over sharply rising food prices were stoked yesterday as Russia, the world’s third largest wheat seller, brought in an emergency ban on grain exports. Experts said the price of bread could shoot up by ten per cent after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the government had banned grain exports until 31 December. Putin said [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS August 11, 2010 ETFS BENEFIT FROM WHEAT SURGE The well-publicised jump in wheat prices in recent days has not escaped the notice of ETF investors. According to ETF Securities, its global agri-business fund rallied 7 per cent last week, topping its ETFX platform. Returns from its agriculture fund actually beat its gold fund, which returned 5 per cent [...]
Bank must restore its credibility August 10, 2010 OF all the people who regulated (or failed to regulate) the financial services industry throughout the banking crisis, Bank of England governor Mervyn King has emerged as the man whose authority has perhaps been most enhanced. Going into the crisis with an institution that sets monetary policy and general supervision, he will emerge, thanks to [...]
European stocks will rebound after US jobs shock August 8, 2010 THE closely-watched US non-farm payrolls figure was responsible for denting European stock markets on Friday, after the data pointed to a steeper than expected decline. Nevertheless, the Dow rallied some 130 points after European markets closed to recover much of its losses for the day, and that resilience is forecast to carry through and boost [...]
Discounts take non-food inflation to 10-month low August 3, 2010 AGGRESSIVE discounting by retailers caused non-food inflation to decelerate to just one per cent, its slowest rate of growth since November 2009, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will say today. Overall, shop price inflation remained at 1.5 per cent thanks to an acceleration in food inflation to 2.5 per cent. Stephen Robertson, director general of [...]
Go long on the rupee to target Indian growth August 3, 2010 WITH the Indian government finally adopting a standardised symbol for the rupee last month, there are ever more signs that the currency is going to become more accessible to investors. Given its persistent weakness against the dollar in recent times – out of line with other Asian currencies, as the chart on the right shows [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 2, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES LIVERPOOL FC AUCTION ATTRACTS GLOBAL INTEREST Global interest in the auction of Liverpool Football Club intensified on Monday with prospective bidders emerging from Hong Kong and the Middle East. Chinese sports entrepreneur Kenneth Huang has made an approach to Liverpool’s bankers Royal Bank of Scotland and US-based Wachovia seeking support for a deal, [...]
Bosses’ pay: the long and short of it August 1, 2010 THERE have been far too many cases of rewards for failure in corporate Britain in recent years. It must become easier and cheaper to sack bosses who fail to deliver. There are tentative signs, however, that shareholders and boards are becoming better at controlling CEOs. It is also vital that successful bosses should be rewarded [...]