UK and Europe on a collision course March 12, 2012 IT is the elephant in the room, the issue nobody wants to talk about. But the growing, irreconcilable gulf between what UK voters and their continental counterparts want from European integration will eventually become as important a question as the fallout from the economic crisis. The scale of the challenge is laid bare by YouGov-Cambridge [...]
Government backs 95% mortgages for first-time buyers March 12, 2012 The government has launched a new mortgage indemnity scheme that is designed to allow first-time buyers to step onto the property ladder and boost the construction industry. Under the NewBuy scheme major lenders including Barclays, Nationwide and Natwest will allow people to borrow up to 95 per cent of the value of a home, with [...]
House price slump not finished yet March 6, 2012 HOUSE prices fell again in February, reversing January’s rise and continuing the slow downward trend of the year. Prices dropped 0.5 per cent in the month, following January’s 0.6 per cent rise, taking the average price to £160,118. Over the last three months, prices are down 1.1 per cent, and 1.9 per cent on February [...]
House prices fall 0.5 per cent March 6, 2012 British house prices dipped 0.5 per cent in February, largely offsetting January’s 0.6 per cent rise, data from mortgage lender Halifax showed. House prices fell 1.9 per cent in the three months to February compared with a year ago, taking the average price of a home to £160,118. Lower inflation in the coming months should [...]
FTSE sees banks up as Greece is saved March 2, 2012 The FTSE 100 was flat this morning and the only significant gainers were banks buoyed by further steps towards saving Greece from the financial abyss. In Wall Street and in Asia nudged up overnight as the European Central Bank’s fresh liquidity injection this week served to warm up investor sentiment. The spotlight is on the [...]
UK “bad bank” pays back £2.1bn to taxpayer March 2, 2012 Britain’s sixth biggest mortgage provider, the “bad bank” running down the loans of collapsed UK lender Northern Rock, said it repaid £2.1bn to the government last year after its annual profits more than doubled. UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), which is running down the bad loans that were held by Northern Rock and other failed lender [...]
UK manufacturing sector growth slows March 1, 2012 Britain’s manufacturing sector grew in February, albeit at a slower pace than in the previous month, raising chances the sector will be a driver of growth for the overall economy in the first quarter. The Markit/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) ticked down to 51.2 from a slightly downwardly revised 52.0 in January, which was [...]
House prices rise more than expected March 1, 2012 House prices rose more than expected in February, data from mortgage lender Nationwide showed. Nationwide said that house prices ticked up by a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent on the month – the biggest rise since April 2010 – and were 0.9 percent higher than a year earlier. That is follows a surprise monthly fall in [...]
City AM interview Paul Fisher of the Bank of England February 23, 2012 Senior Bank of England official Paul Fisher was interviewed on Wednesday 22nd February 2012, by Allister Heath and Julian Harris from City A.M. The edited transcript is as follows: Paul, would you like to start with how you see the outlook at the moment? I think it continues to be a story where the outlook [...]
Citigroup aims for $2.1bn boost as it cashes in on stake in Indian lender February 23, 2012 CITIGROUP is set to join the ranks of financial services companies cashing in on the lucrative Indian market by selling its stake the nation’s top mortgage lender. It wants to raise up to $2.1bn (£1.3bn) to shore up its capital base by selling its 9.9 per cent shareholding in India’s Housing Development Finance Corp. The [...]