The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has today announced that Greece has met the conditions of its loan and will therefore receive the third instalment of its bailout loan. In May, the EU and the IMF agreed to loan €110 billion. The three-year rescue deal comprises €80 billion from the EU, with the rest coming from [...]
The Bank of Korea (BoK) has today opted to leave interest rates on hold at 2.25% – for the third consecutive month. The decision surprised many economists who had expected rates to be lifted to 2.5%. The central bank left interest rates at the record low 2% for 17 months following the global economic downturn [...]
Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expressed its concern for a currency war. The Fund said if Governments across the world use exchange rates as a policy weapon, there could be a serious risk to global economic recovery. However, this weekend’s IMF and World Bank annual meeting in Washington saw the currency issue unresolved. [...]
The European Central Bank (ECB) today elected to keep interest rates on hold at the historic low of 1% – where they have been since May 2009. Interest rates are expected to remain on hold until at least 2011, as a result of uneven growth and low inflation. The news comes after the Bank of [...]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has suggested the UK property market could experience a double dip. In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF highlighted that despite Government efforts to boost the housing market and encourage first-time buyers, UK house prices could still be in line for “further correction”. The IMF was referring to the [...]
The Halifax has today revealed UK house prices fell by a record 3.6% in September compared with August. The latest house price fall takes the average cost of a UK home to £162,096, the Halifax said. According to the lender, the monthly decline was the biggest since records began in 1983. However, it is still [...]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has today warned that economic growth will be hit due to deep spending cuts. Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economic counsellor, said massive spending cuts may have to be revisited if growth in the UK is hampered. However, Mr Blanchard did highlight that his comments applied to all advanced economies, [...]
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has expressed his concern for a currency war. According to Mr Strauss-Kahn, if Governments across the world use exchange rates as a policy weapon, there could be a serious risk to global economic recovery. His comments come ahead of the IMF and World Bank annual [...]
In its half-yearly health assessment of the financial system, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said it is concerned about the global financial system. The crisis in the European sovereign debt markets has meant the prospects for global stability have been pushed back, said the IMF. The crisis is Europe has recently been exacerbated by [...]
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has today said he does not expect the European rescue fund to be activated for Ireland. The rescue fund was established by European Governments and the IMF after the Greek debt crisis earlier this year. In a newspaper interview, Mr Strauss-Kahn said: “We are ready [...]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has today said it supports the Coalition Government’s tough austerity measures, designed to cut the budget deficit. The support comes despite many experts suggesting that the tough measures could pose a threat to the fragile recovery, because spending cuts and a hike in taxes will have slashed the forecast for [...]
Iceland’s Central Bank (Sedlabanki Islands) has slashed its key interest from 8% to 7%. While a cut was expected, it was not as much as economists had forecast after inflation eased and the country’s currency, the krona, strengthened. The central bank has aggressively cut interest rates after they hit a record high of 18% in [...]
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union (EU) auditors have today said Greece has made “considerable progress” in dealing with its public deficit. For many months now, Greece has been making big cuts to public spending. However, this has met with strong opposition from unions. Greece’s two main unions have launched several strikes this year [...]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has today lifted its global growth forecast for 2010 to 4.6%, up from the 4.2% forecast in April. However, it maintained its 2011 growth forecast at 4.%. The upward revision for 2010 comes despite ongoing financial turmoil in the euro zone, triggered by Greece’s debt crisis that threatened to spread [...]
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has said that China’s yuan was still too low, despite a pledge by the People’s Bank of China to make its exchange rate more flexible. The US has previously expressed dissatisfaction that China is keeping the value of the yuan low to help its exporters [...]
The Japanese economy, which is the world’s second largest, faces many risks, one of them is deflation and the other is the country’s debt – which at nearly 230% of GDP is the highest of any industrialised nation. The debt is the result of decades of stimulus spending and low tax receipts. Japan’s new Prime [...]
There are fears that the debt crisis in the euro zone could hit the global economy but Australia believes its economy will be unaffected. According to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor, Glenn Stevens, the country’s strong trade connections with East Asia means it will be relatively unaffected by the events in the euro [...]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a severe warning to the Spanish economy suggesting it needs “far-reaching” reforms to ensure its recovery. The economy, which is the euro zone’s fourth largest, exited recession in the first quarter of the year after experiencing growth of just 0.1% – ending a run of seven consecutive quarters [...]
The Cabinet Office has today announced that the world’s second largest economy expanded by 1.2% between January and March compared with the previous quarter – marking the fourth straight quarter of expansion. The growth was boosted by exports, while on an annual basis, growth was 4.9% – however, analysts had expected growth of between 5.4% [...]
The strength of the recovery in the world’s second largest economy should lead it to start reducing its massive debt from 2011, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF is urging Japan to increase consumption tax, while containing its growth in spending, in order to deal with its debt which currently stands at [...]
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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