The Halifax has today revealed UK house prices rose by just 0.3% in July on a monthly basis – the third consecutive monthly rise. The latest rise takes the average cost of a UK home to £163,981, the Halifax said. However, on an annual basis, prices are 2.6% lower. When comparing prices in the three [...]
Growth in the UK’s closely-watched service sector grew at the strongest pace in 4 months in July, figures have revealed today. The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS)/Markit purchasing managers’ index (PMI) surged to 55.4 last month from June’s reading of 53.9. The rise was unexpected after analysts had expected the index to fall [...]
The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS)/Markit purchasing managers’ index (PMI) has today revealed growth in the UK construction industry slowed in July. The PMI dipped to 53.5 in July from June’s reading of 53.6 – however, the figure beat expectations of a reading of 53.0. Furthermore, the index remains above the crucial 50 [...]
The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS)/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) has today revealed UK manufacturing contracted in July – the first time since the UK was in recession two years ago. The closely-watched CIPS/Markit manufacturing PMI fell to 49.1 last month from a revised 51.4 in June. The index is now below [...]
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 [...]
A survey of 2,000 individuals, conducted between July 1 and 10, has revealed a fall in consumer confidence. According to the survey of consumer attitudes, carried out by GfK NOP Social Research, confidence dived by 5 points to -30 in July – edging closer to the -31 seen in April. The index was also worse [...]
The latest house price index from the Nationwide Building Society has revealed house prices crept up by 0.2% in July. On an annual basis, house prices are now just 0.4% lower than this time last year with the average UK home costing £168,731. The housing market remains subdued as a lack of buyers, together with [...]
The housing market in England and Wales is “in broad equilibrium” despite prices continuing to edge lower, according to Hometrack, which recorded a 0.1% fall in the value of the typical dwelling in July, compared with June. However, there are wide regional variations: prices moved higher across 8% of postcodes (primarily in London) and were [...]
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 [...]
Property website, Rightmove, has today reported a drop in asking prices for the month of July – the first fall this year. According to Rightmove, asking prices for residential property in England and Wales fell by 1.6% in July. The property website, which claims to advertise 90% of the properties on the market, said the [...]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today revealed UK unemployment dipped in the three months to July. The ONS said unemployment fell by 8,000 in the three month period to 2.47 million. The latest figures means the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.8%, said the ONS. This compares with 10% in the euro zone [...]
New figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) show the average UK house price falling by 0.3% in July, with the annual rate of inflation slowing to 8.4%, compared with 9.9% in June. On a country basis, annual house price rises were evident in England 9.0%; Scotland 3.7% and Wales 10.1%, while [...]
Demand for house purchase mortgages continued to be weak in July, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has reported. In what is traditionally a strong month, there were only 56,000 house purchase loans (worth £8.4 billion), although volumes had increased from 53,000 a year earlier. Remortgaging activity remained flat when compared with June (28,000 loans) [...]
The Commerce Department today announced the US trade deficit narrowed in July by 14% to $42.8 billion (£27.8 billion) from $49.90 billion the previous month. The figure is much improved from June’s figure when the trade gap reached a 20-month high. According to the Commerce Department, the narrowing in the trade deficit was primarily due [...]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today revealed the UK’s trade deficit widened in July to a record high, as imports soared and exports fell. According to the ONS, the goods trade gap widened to £8.667 billion in July, up from £7.532 billion the previous month. The deficit was the biggest since the series [...]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today revealed UK manufacturing output grew by 0.3% in July compared with June, recovering from a drop caused by an early start to oil rig maintenance in June. The figures, which were in line with expectations, meant the annual rise stood at 4.9% – the best annual gain [...]
New figures from the Bank of England show total net lending secured on UK dwellings increasing by £0.1 billion in July, although the rise is well below June’s increase of £0.5 billion and the previous six-month average of £0.8 billion. Approvals for house purchase stood at 48,722 with the total broadly in line with a [...]
The Land Registry has reported that house prices in England and Wales increased by 0.4% in July, with growth at its strongest since the start of the year. The rise took the average value of a home to £166,798 but left annual growth at 6.7%, down from 8.4% in June. Data for London show monthly [...]
IMRG, an industry body for global e-retailing, has reported online sales soared in July – at the quickest pace in three years. According to the industry body, the rain discouraged shoppers from venturing onto the high street and opting to purchase from the comfort of their own home. According to IMRG, £5 billion was spent [...]
Figures published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) revealed a sharp fall in UK car production for the month of July. Car production plummeted by 8.9% against the same month a year ago – the first such fall since October last year. The SMMT said there were 98,000 cars produced in [...]
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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