Tag: concerns
BoE’s Andrew Sentance warns of double dip risk
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee member, Andrew Sentance, has acknowledged that there is some risk of a double dip recession. Mr Sentance said: “You have to recognise there is some risk of a double dip, but that’s not the central forecast.” His comments come just a week after fellow policymaker, Kate Barker, said [...]
Bank voted 9-0 to hold rates and QE programme
Minutes of the Bank of England’s March meeting have been released today and have revealed that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously earlier this month to keep interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%. Furthermore, all nine members of the MPC opted to keep the quantitative easing (QE) on hold. QE, also known [...]
ONS to publish second Q4 GDP estimate
Last month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the UK crawled out of recession in the fourth quarter by seeing growth of just 0.1% in the final three months of 2009. However, the figures were only the first estimate and the second estimate is to be released this morning. Yesterday, the ONS reported a [...]
UK business investment sees substantial fall
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today reported a sharp fall in business investment, raising concern over the second estimate of fourth quarter GDP figures, which are due to be published tomorrow. According to the ONS, business investment fell by 5.8% in the fourth quarter of 2009 to £27.1 billion – the steepest annual [...]
Italy’s recovery in doubt as economy contracts in Q4
The euro zone’s woes appear to be far from over today after the area’s third largest economy, Italy, unexpectedly contracted by 0.2% in the final three months of 2009, causing concern over its economic recovery. The news comes shortly after Germany, which is the euro zone‘s largest economy, said GDP remained flat in the three [...]
Japan interest rates unchanged
The Bank of Japan has again elected to keep interest rates on hold at the low level of 0.1%, as widely expected. It is anticipated that the Bank will leave rates at the low rate until around 2012 as a result of deflationary pressures. The world’s no.2 economy exited recession in the second quarter of [...]
Tesco opens UK’s first self-service store
In a bid to speed up trips to the shops, supermarket giant Tesco has opened the first self-service store in Northampton. The Tesco Express store has five self-service tills but no manned checkouts. There is, however, one member of staff available to authorise transactions for age-restricted items such as alcohol and knives. The news will [...]
Sharp fall in business investment in Q2
Business investment in Britain fell by 10.4% in the April to June period – the biggest quarterly fall since 1985. Official figures show that the amount spent by businesses on a range of investments, such as new computers and building works, fell to £29.8 billion during the period. According to economists, the figures will raise [...]
Recovery concerns for Germany as investor confidence falls
The Zew economic sentiment index has revealed German analyst and investor confidence fell in July for the first time since October 2008. The index, which measures expectations of economic activity over the next six months, fell from 44.8 in June to 39.5 in July. According to Zew, respondents had expressed concern over whether lending to [...]
US consumers continue to tighten their belts
US retailers have been hit by the continuous tightening of purse strings due to rising unemployment. Furthermore, bad weather in June further dampened US retail sales, in particular summer clothes and seasonal items. According to the Goldman Sachs Retail Composite Index, overall the industry reported a fall of 6.7% in sales for the month of [...]
Concerns over Lloyds TSB rescue deal for HBOS
Banking shares have been the sharpest fallers on the FTSE 100 today in London as it was announced late last night that the US $700 billion (£380 billion) bailout scheme was rejected after it failed to gain support from Congress who voted against the proposed scheme. One of the biggest fallers today was HBOS who [...]
Fortis in rescue talks
Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis has been in rescue talks over the weekend after concerns have been raised about its future. The Belgian government, regulators, and the Dutch central bank are all involved in the talks with a deal to be announced by tomorrow morning. Fortis, which is Britain’s third-largest private car insurer, based on volume, [...]
