Reactions to the chancellor’s statement December 5, 2013 THE BUSINESS GROUPDirector general of the CBIJohn Cridland The CBI had lobbied the government to cap business rates at two per cent and support business finance. “We have always advocated the dual approach of tackling the deficit and driving growth – the OBR forecasts confirm it is working. Let’s stick with what works. “The pressure [...]
Banks urged to cut premium rate phone bills for customers November 18, 2013 CONSUMERS are being ripped off by high rate phone charges used by their banks and credit card providers, said consumer group Which?, in a new drive to cut or end the premium rate bills. It comes at Barclays and RBS announced they will offer free or basic-rate phone lines to customers. “With two of the [...]
Why it’s no time to be complacent about the UK’s inflation problem November 14, 2013 THE SURPRISE fall in the annual inflation rate in October to 2.2 per cent on the consumer price index and 2.6 per cent on the retail price index is obviously welcome news. However, it’s too soon to be complacent. It also reminds us that inflation has been consistently above the Bank of England’s 2 per [...]
Why it’s no time to be complacent about the UK’s inflation problem November 12, 2013 THE SURPRISE fall in the annual inflation rate in October to 2.2 per cent on the consumer price index and 2.6 per cent on the retail price index is obviously welcome news. However, it’s too soon to be complacent. It also reminds us that inflation has been consistently above the Bank of England’s 2 per [...]
Labour makes new push for higher wages November 4, 2013 LABOUR leader Ed Miliband has pledged to offer tax breaks of up to £1,000 per worker for companies that move low-paid staff onto the living wage. Miliband said the scheme would cut poverty while saving money on benefit payments – but the Conservatives and some business groups said the plan was impractical. More than 400 [...]
Credit doubles as Britons go on a debt binge October 31, 2013 London leads a boom in house prices that threatens to spiral out of control CONSUMER credit is rising twice as fast as previously thought, the Bank of England admitted yesterday, raising new concerns over a bubble in lending. The borrowing splurge means households borrowed an extra £864m on credit cards and via other unsecured loans [...]
Sorry to be a party-pooper, but this is the wrong kind of growth October 31, 2013 EVEN the Bank of England sometimes makes mistakes. It was forced to correct its most recent data on consumer borrowing yesterday, in a development that confirmed what many of us feared all along: credit is beginning to surge dangerously. Yes, the economy has rebounded; but in many ways we are seeing the wrong kind of [...]
Fed sticks with stimulus level as US deficit eases October 30, 2013 THE US Federal Reserve revealed a relatively bearish outlook over the country’s economy last night as it confirmed that it would stick to its massive $85bn (£53bn) a month stimulus programme. Yet there was some rosier news in a separate data release by the US Treasury department, which said that the state’s deficit has been [...]
Rising fuel costs: The real trigger behind the 2008 subprime crisis October 29, 2013 FIVE years on, and academics and journalists are still attempting to explain the US subprime loan crisis that, in September 2008, caused the collapse of Lehman Brothers and apparently triggered the global economic crisis. But an important factor in understanding what happened is missing: energy prices. In November to December 1998, a barrel of oil [...]
London Report: Bank falls stop FTSE’s nine-day winning streak October 23, 2013 THE UK’S benchmark equity index fell yesterday to end a nine-session winning streak, as a drop in heavyweight banking shares dragged the stock market down from five-month highs. Nevertheless, several traders felt any pullback would be relatively short-lived and saw the UK stock market rallying into the end of 2013. The benchmark FTSE 100 index [...]