The quarterly Confederation of British Industry (CBI) report has revealed shoppers returned the High Street in their droves in February after UK retailers reported their strongest growth in sales volumes for two years in early February. The CBI also believes further growth will be experienced in March as consumers begin to loosen their purse strings. [...]
Business group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned of a “fragile” recovery this year but the group is predicting that the economy will have exited recession in the fourth quarter. The economy, which has now contracted for six consecutive quarters, has been lagging behind other economies and is now the last major economy [...]
A quarterly survey of the UK’s financial services sector by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has revealed that firms remain cautious in their outlook. According to Ian McCafferty, chief economic adviser at the CBI: “The bounce in UK financial services activity over the past six months is not expected to last [...]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today revealed that the UK economy contracted by 0.2% in the July to September period – rather than the 0.3% previously reported and the 0.4% estimated in October. Analysts had forecast a contraction of 0.1%. On an annual basis, the UK economy has shrunk by 5.1% over the [...]
Business group, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), has warned of a “fragile” recovery next year. However, the group is predicting that the economy will emerge from recession in the fourth quarter. According to John Cridland, CBI deputy director general, growth will gradually pick up but the first few months of 2010 will be difficult. [...]
A survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has today revealed a poor performance among services companies in the July to September period. The group said a net 13% balance of service firms said profits had increased annually for the quarter, less than the 19% expected. Business services firms such as accountancy and law [...]
The UK economy received a boost today after the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said retail sales rose at their fastest pace in two years in November. According to the CBI’s monthly distributive trades survey, retailers expect a further rise in December, boosting hopes of a busy Christmas shopping period on the High Street. The [...]
Speaking today at the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Prime Minister Gordon Brown told business leaders that in order to sustain economic recovery, financial stimulus measures will be kept in place for as long as necessary. The PM warned that economic recovery would be put at risk if official support was [...]
A survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and recruitment consultancy Harvey Nash, has discovered that more than half (55%) of British companies are proposing to freeze pay for the second consecutive year. Furthermore, the survey found that just over one third are planning a modest increase, while just 4% were looking to increase [...]
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has today reported a rise in retail sales with volumes rising at their fastest annual rate for almost two years in October. The CBI’s distributive trades survey said the sales balance rose to +8 in October from +3 the previous month. Not only was it the highest level since [...]
In its latest quarterly survey, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has reported signs of growth in the UK financial services sector, for the first time in two years. The study, which is carried out in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers, reveals that 32% of firms questioned saw business volumes rise in the three months to early [...]
Minutes of the Bank of England’s September meeting have been released today and have revealed that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously this month to keep interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%. Furthermore, the Bank also opted to leave its quantitative easing programme unchanged at £175 billion and said it would not [...]
The latest distributive trades survey by the Confederation of British Industry has revealed a fall in UK retail sales in August – the fourth consecutive month of declines. According to the survey, the balance of retailers who had seen a fall in sales rather than a rise had dipped to -16 in August, from -15 [...]
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is urging the Government to deal with the growing levels of youth unemployment and is calling for £125 million of the Government’s £500 million recruitment subsidy fund to be spent on creating 50,000 new apprenticeships. The growing problem was highlighted last week by the Prince’s Trust and the University [...]
Figures released by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) today revealed a significant fall in manufacturing orders in July. According to the CBI, orders fell at their fastest rate since January 1992, raising new concerns about the state of the economy. In its quarterly health check of industry, the CBI found that in the three [...]
The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) Distributive Trades Survey has revealed that consumers continue to cut back as retail sales were weak in June. According to the CBI, more retailers said sales had fallen rather than risen, giving a balance of – 17%. The figure was in line with analysts’ average forecast but well below [...]
The UK Government has been warned by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) over its “green new deal” as there could be billions of pounds worth of green investment lost, if there is not greater focus on environmental targets. There has been heavy criticism of the UK climate policy as it has not supported change [...]
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has announced that there will be an extension of current legislation, whereby employees with children under six or disabled children had a statutory right to request flexible working, and this has now been extended to anyone with children under 16. The Trades Union Congress has welcomed the [...]
A survey conducted by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has revealed that banks and other financial institutions are expected to cut a further 15,000 jobs in the next three months. According to the organisation, approximately 15,000 jobs have already been axed in the industry in the first quarter of this year, which will take [...]
The latest figures from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) have revealed that High Street sales in March suffered even more than the previous month as consumers have reined in their spending even further. Sales volumes have fallen for 63 percent of retailers and that the gauge of future sales has fallen to -42 percent [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
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