News Tag: cut
March 3, 2010
The Venezuelan economy, which relies heavily on revenues from its oil reserves for its economic growth, contracted by 5.8% in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with a year earlier.
According to the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), the economy shrank 3.3% during the 2009 year.
The BCV said the global economic crisis and "the weakness of the price of oil and ...
Venezuela economy shrinks 5.8% in fourth quarter
by Kay Murchie
January 23, 2010
Both Northern Rock and the Post Office have launched new mortgage deals with lower rates.
The Post Office has cut the cost of its Bank of Ireland lifetime tracker loans from 3.29% to 2.99%, or from 3.59% to 3.49%, dependent upon the loan-to-value ratio.
Bank of Ireland has also reduced the price of its five-year fixed-rate offering by 0.5% ...
Mortgage rate cuts from Post Office and Northern Rock
by Gill Montia
December 9, 2009
At today’s Pre-Budget Report, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling unveiled measures to claw back money in order to pay off the UK’s spiralling debt.
Mr Darling confirmed there would be a one-off 50% tax on bankers' bonuses paid above £25,000.
The Chancellor said the banks, rather than the bankers, will pay the tax and the temporary measure will come into ...
Darling unveils plans to cut UK’s ballooning debt
by Kay Murchie
December 8, 2009
Credit rating agency, Fitch, has cut Greece's sovereign debt rating to a decade-low to BBB+ from A- with a negative outlook.
Greece, which is the euro zone's weakest economy, has the highest debt of the 16-member bloc and the downgrade comes after recent warnings by two other agencies that they were considering such measures.
The news of the downgrade had a negative ...
Fitch cuts Greece’s sovereign debt rating
by Kay Murchie
November 25, 2009
Last December, the Government cut the VAT rate from 17.5% to 15% in an attempt to boost spending.
However, the rate is to revert back to the normal 17.5% level from 1 January 2010 but research shows that Britons are unaware and unprepared.
Research from Auto Trader shows that 12 million Brits are unaware of the rise with almost one third of ...
Brits unprepared for VAT rise in January
by Kay Murchie
November 24, 2009
Bank Rossii, Russia’s central bank, has cut interest rates by 50 basis points to 9% - a record low and the ninth time rates have been cut since April in bid to boost demand.
Russia’s economy, which is heavily reliant on oil exports, has suffered from a severe downturn but the economy appears to now be on the road ...
Russia cuts interest rates to record low of 9%
by Kay Murchie
November 5, 2009
The European Central Bank (ECB) today elected to keep interest rates on hold at the historic low of 1% for the sixth consecutive month.
The news came shortly after the Bank of England announced it was keeping interest rates at 0.5%.
Furthermore, the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, opted to keep interest rates at the record low of close to ...
Euro zone interest rates on hold at 1%
by Kay Murchie
October 26, 2009
In a speech to the City today, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce that retail banks should be stopped from paying cash bonuses of more than £2,000.
Many experts have been arguing that big bonuses prompted excessive risk-taking at banks which contributed to the financial crisis.
In his speech, Mr Osborne is expected to say lending banks should be ...
Tories call for end to cash bonuses
by Kay Murchie
October 22, 2009
The Obama administration is proposing to cut the salaries of top executives at firms which have received billions of dollars in Government aid.
The institutions that are affected are Bank of America, American International Group (AIG), Citigroup, General Motors, GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial.
According to reports, these seven companies will see their 25 highest paid executives have their salary ...
Obama administration plans salary cuts for bailout firms
by Kay Murchie
September 15, 2009
Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced plans to cut its operating schedule and reduce headcount by almost 7,000.
The loss-making airline said that a total of 6,800 jobs will go as it embarks on a cost-cutting exercise and is making plans for fuel-efficiency and a focus on business customers.
The news comes as there are rumours that several US and ...
Thousands of jobs set to go at Japan Airlines
by Kay Murchie
September 9, 2009
Consumer advice sites Moneyfacts and uSwitch.com have reacted with cynicism to the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) decision to lower overdraft fees.
RBS and sister bank NatWest cut unauthorised overdraft fees in half to £15 earlier this week.
Charges for bounced cheques were reduced from £38 to £5.
The changes come ahead of a ruling by the Supreme Court which will decide whether the ...
Is RBS pre-empting the Supreme Court?
by David Masters
August 26, 2009
The world’s largest advertising group WPP has reported that pre-tax profits almost halved for the first half of 2009 but said the latter half of the year was "forecast to show a marked improvement in profitability".
Pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of June plunged 47% to £179 million, while like-for-like revenue fell 8%. ...
WPP sees H1 profits fall 47% but optimistic for H2
by Kay Murchie
August 4, 2009
Nationwide has cut rates by up to 0.5% on some of its fixed-rate and tracker mortgages, from today.
Reductions have been applied to its two-year and three-year fixed-rate loans and two-year tracker deal, both for new customers and remortgagers.
However, also from 4th August the building society will be retaining £99 of its existing reservation fees, having introduced a non refundable booking fee ...
Nationwide cuts rates by 0.5%
by Gill Montia
July 6, 2009
Budget airline Ryanair aims to slash costs and boost profits by asking passengers to stand during flights.
Chief executive, Michael O'Leary, has already spoken with US plane manufacturer Boeing about the possibility of designing an aircraft with standing room.
Should the proposal gain approval, Ryanair plans to order new jets or refurbish its existing fleet.
According to spokesperson Stephen McNamara: “It would be vertical seating more ...
Ryanair proposes ‘vertical seating’
by Kay Murchie
June 8, 2009
Standard & Poor's (S&P) has again downgraded Ireland’s credit rating by one notch to AA, from AA+ amid fears that the Government is set to incur a bigger than expected cost for supporting banks.
At the end of March, the agency downgraded Ireland’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ amid debt fears and put Ireland on a “negative” outlook, which meant further ...
Ireland’s credit rating cut again
by Kay Murchie
May 19, 2009
Britain’s largest clothing retailer, Marks & Spencer (M&S) has dealt a blow to its shareholders today by announcing it is slashing its dividend to 15p a share for the 12 months to the end of March, down 7p from the previous year.
The cut was larger than analysts had expected but M&S said the cut was "tough but necessary".
Meanwhile, the retailing ...
M&S announces fall in full-year profits
by Kay Murchie
May 7, 2009
As widely expected, the European Central Bank (ECB) has today opted to cut rates by 0.25% to 1% for the euro zone.
The new rate is a record low and is the seventh cut in as many months. Rates have been reduced since October 2008 when they stood at 4.25%.
The news follows that from the Bank of England who elected to keep interest ...
ECB cuts rates to 1%
by Kay Murchie
May 5, 2009
Woolwich is cutting rates across its range of mortgages, by up to 0.7%.
A two-year fix at 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is available at 4.99%, representing a reduction of 0.4%, while a three year fixed-rate deal at 70% LTV comes 0.5% cheaper at 3.99%.
In addition, the Barclays-owned lender's offset tracker mortgage is down 0.5% to Bank of England base rate ...
Woolwich lowers rates by up to 0.7%
by Gill Montia
May 1, 2009
The Brazilian central bank has cut interest rates by 1 percent to 10.25 percent, while the move was widely expected, many investors are disappointed that the reduction was not greater with a 1.5 percent rate cut being mooted.
This was evidence that the central bank has reduced their policy of monetary easing, although the benchmark interest rate has been set ...
Brazil central bank cuts interest rates to 10.25%
by Peter Charalambous
April 30, 2009
As expected the New Zealand central bank Governor, Alan Bollard, has cut interest rates for the seventh consecutive time, as the recession has slowed exports and reduced business investment on the island.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has officially cut interest rates by 0.5 percent to a record low of 2.5 percent.
After 18 months of recession, the economy ...
New Zealand cuts interest rates to record low
by Peter Charalambous
