The Federal Reserve’s policy-setting arm, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), elected to keep interest rates on hold between 0% and 0.25% yesterday. Rates have been at the record low since December 2008 and the Fed has announced it will hold rates at this historic low until 2013 – suggesting the central bank is concerned [...]
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) commenced its two-day rate-setting meeting yesterday and interest rates are expected to remain on hold at the record low of 0.5% – where they have been since March 2009. The bank is presented with a dilemma as it comes under pressure to raise interest rates to combat [...]
India, which is Asia’s third largest economy, has lowered its growth forecast for the current fiscal year to March 2012 to 8.2% from 9%. The revision comes amid global uncertainty and a series of interest rate hikes to combat stubbornly high inflation. Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised key interest rates for [...]
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has today revised its growth prospects for the UK Economy. The employer’s group is now forecasting growth of 1.3% this year, down from its May forecast of 1.7%. Meanwhile, it is still expecting growth of 2.2% in 2012 – unchanged from its previous forecast. The CBI has also suggested [...]
According to a preliminary estimate from Eurostat today, euro zone inflation eased in July to 2.5% from 2.7% in June. The figures come despite figures earlier this week suggesting German inflation crept up to 2.4%. Despite the fall, inflation remains higher than the ECB’s target of just below 2% – and is expected to remain [...]
The latest Beige Book report, published by the Federal Reserve, has revealed widespread signs that US economic growth is slowing. The Fed said: “Economic activity continued to grow; however, the pace has moderated in many districts.” The economic recovery of the US remains sluggish in the face of higher unemployment and a depressed housing market, [...]
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has raised key interest rates for the eleventh time since March 2010, in a bid to tame stubbornly high inflation in a thriving economy. The central bank lifted its main rate to 8% from 7.5% as inflation soars on the back of higher food and fuel prices. In a [...]
South Korea, which is Asia’s fourth largest economy, has experienced growth of 3.4% in the second quarter on an annual basis, down from 4.2% in the previous quarter, according to official data today. Meanwhile, quarter-on-quarter growth was 0.8%, down from 1.3% as exports slowed and manufacturing weakened. “Private consumption steadily increased and facilities investment rose. [...]
Minutes of the Bank of England’s July 6-7 meeting have been released today and have revealed the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) again voted 7-2 to lift interest rates and 8-1 to restart the Bank’s quantitative easing (QE) scheme. Adam Posen, again, called for an injection of £50 billion via the QE scheme to boost the [...]
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has today revised its growth forecast for the economy following the earthquake and tsunami which struck in March. The twin disasters forced the country back into a recession after industrial output suffered a record drop and spending dived as consumer and business confidence took a battering. The Japanese economy, which [...]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) today announced Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) unexpected fell to annual rate of 4.2% last month from May’s 2½-year high of 4.5%. Analysts had expected the figure to remain at 4.5%. However, the figure remains more than double the target of 2% and has been above this level since December [...]
Inflation in the world’s second largest economy reached the highest level in 3 years in June – suggesting that the central bank will continue to lift interest rates. Just last week, the People’s Bank of China raised rates for the third time this year to combat stubbornly high inflation. Many other central banks in Asia [...]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today revealed UK producer output prices surged in June to their highest level since October 2008. According to the ONS, output prices (factory gate) annual inflation for all manufactured products grew by 5.7% in June – slightly higher than forecasts of a 5.6% rise and the biggest annual [...]
The European Central Bank (ECB) has today elected to lift interest rates from 1.25% to 1.5% – the second increase since April. The move comes to tame rising inflation in the 17-member euro zone and was widely expected by analysts and more rate rises are on the cards. Inflation in the euro zone currently stands [...]
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has today elected to keep UK interest rates on hold at the historically low level of 0.5%, as widely expected. Interest rates have now been at this low level since March 2009 – when the economy was in the midst of recession. Recent figures show the economy [...]
A campaign group has written to the Bank of England’s rate-setting committee to urge them to lift interest rates to encourage saving. The low interest rate of 0.5% has been in place since March 2009 – when the economy was in the midst of recession. The record low rate, however, has meant the value of [...]
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) commenced its two-day rate-setting meeting yesterday and interest rates are expected to remain on hold at the record low of 0.5% – where they have been since March 2009. The bank is presented with a dilemma as it comes under pressure to raise interest rates to combat [...]
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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