Economic Diary January 17, 2010 WHILE US banks will be dominating the calendar across the Atlantic next week, in Britain it is definitely the economic releases that will be taking centre stage. Kicking off is the property website Rightmove’s January house asking price survey, released this morning. The survey shows a monthly rise of 0.4 per cent and a 4.1 [...]
UK Plc has much to learn from Tesco January 12, 2010 NAPOLEON Bonaparte was right: Britain is a nation of shopkeepers. Tesco’s great figures yesterday confirm that the retailer remains one of the UK’s few truly world-class corporate giants. Group sales increased by 7.5 per cent at constant exchange rates and like-for-like UK sales (ex-fuel and adjusted for Vat) were up by 4.9 per cent in [...]
Britain needs to rediscover how to save January 10, 2010 BELIEVE it or not but many forecasters are becoming more upbeat about Britain’s prospects for the coming year. HSBC, whose predictions are always cautious, is expecting growth of 2.2 per cent, much higher than the consensus; others are also becoming more optimistic. I remain more downbeat. But it is worth taking a look at some [...]
House prices continue to strengthen in December January 7, 2010 HOUSE prices in the UK recorded their sixth consecutive monthly rise in December, data from the Halifax showed yesterday, though the mortgage lender expects prices to plateau over the rest of 2010. Prices rallied one per cent between November and December, bringing the cost of the average UK home to £169,042. December also saw house [...]
Pimco cuts exposure to UK bonds January 4, 2010 PACIFIC Investment Management Co (Pimco), the world’s biggest bond fund, said yesterday it will cut its exposure to government bonds in the UK and US, amid fears that the end of quantitative easing and rising public debt could scupper the economic recovery. Pimco leads a number of large funds which are concerned that UK and [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK ECONOMIC PROSPECTS FOR 2010 ARE BETTER THAN THEY WERE IN 2009? January 4, 2010 ANDY APPELBAUM | DIAGONAL CONSULTING “I hope they don’t raise interest rates too quickly this year because my mortgage would cost more. I think levels of unemployment are going to stay about the same, but I think we’re through the worst of the recession.” BEVERLEY GALLEY | SMBCE “I’m quite optimistic. I think the market [...]
Bernanke defends Fed record but hints at rate rises to come January 4, 2010 BEN Bernanke staged a robust defence of the US Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy in the years running up to the sub-prime crisis yesterday. The Fed chairman argued that lax regulation rather than the low cost of borrowing was to blame for the American housing bubble that began to burst in 2006. Nonetheless, he hinted [...]
Fall in house prices lets in new buyers January 3, 2010 LOWER house prices and falling interest rates have made homes significantly more affordable for first-time buyers in the past 12 months, according to the Halifax. The average price paid by a firsttime buyer in 2009 was affordable in nearly 40 per cent of local authority districts, compared with 24 per cent in 2008 and just [...]
Improved GDP numbers will add to the growing confidence in sterling December 21, 2009 ALL the signs are pointing to an upward revision to UK GDP growth this morning. The consensus among City economists is for a smaller 0.1 percent fall in GDP in the third quarter. But there is a real possibility that growth was actually stronger and could even have been flat on the quarter. A 2 [...]
Rate of repossessions rises as housing recovery slows December 15, 2009 ALMOST 14,000 Britons lost their homes in the third quarter of 2009 as mortgage lenders increased the rate of repossessions, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) revealed yesterday. Repossessions rose 2.8 per cent on the same period of 2008, but the FSA pointed out that the 13,987 properties taken back by lenders was five per cent [...]