The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today announced a rise in UK retail sales for the month of June – exceeding market forecasts. According to the ONS, the value of UK retail sales grew 0.7% in June compared with May, boosted by sales of electrical goods, such as televisions for the World Cup. Excluding [...]
British retailing giant, Marks and Spencer (M&S), has today announced UK same-store sales grew in its first quarter (13 weeks to 3 July), while food sales rose 1.5% and general merchandise was 6% higher. While the figures represented the third quarter of sales growth in a row, it was slower than the 5.1% increase in [...]
It seems British people are concerned about the economic outlook after the GfK consumer confidence index dipped two points in May to -18 from -16 in April. The reading is the lowest level since January but higher than the -27 reported in May 2009. The news will come as a blow to the new coalition [...]
British retailing giant, Marks and Spencer (M&S), has today announced pre-tax profits totalled £632.5 million for the 12 months to 27 March – a rise of 4.6% on the same period a year ago. UK like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of new store openings, grew 0.9% over the 12-month period. Sales of general [...]
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has today announced UK car sales were up by 26.4% in February compared with the same month in 2009, boosted by the Government’s scrappage scheme. The £400 million initiative, which was launched last May to boost the ailing car industry, pays drivers of cars at least 10 [...]
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 [...]
Official figures have today revealed that Ireland’s economy grew by 0.3% in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter and has therefore exited recession. The economy has been one of the worst performers in the western world this year but has now emerged from what was one of Europe’s worst recessions. However, despite the [...]
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 Bank of England’s latest quarterly inflation report, published today, has revealed a much better outlook for the UK economy than its previous report in August. The Bank increased its forecast for economic growth over the next two years predicting that gross domestic product (GDP) should rise above 4% early 2011 before slowing to 3% [...]
Royal Dutch Shell has today posted a 73% fall in profits for the July to September period. The Anglo-Dutch oil giant warned that the outlook remains “very uncertain” and according to The Times, is to eliminate 5,000 positions, around 10% of its workforce. The group said its cost-cutting exercise means that 5,000 staff would leave [...]
More than half of small & medium-sized business owners (57%) believe that the recession will continue until at least next spring. The findings are a result of a survey conducted by Amplify – the communications company. Amplify conducted the survey during the summer and also found that business owners would have done things differently if [...]
Minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting have revealed that policymakers are optimistic that the US downturn is coming to an end. However, the minutes did say that the economy is “likely to recover only slowly during the second half of this year and all saw it as still vulnerable to adverse shocks.” Furthermore, policymakers [...]
Japan’s central bank has again kept its key interest rate at 0.1% and has adopted a cautious outlook for the economy. Interest rates in the world’s second largest economy have been on hold since December, when the Bank reduced rates from 0.3%. The bank said conditions had stopped deteriorating but warned that unemployment is expected [...]
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) is joining many other leading think tanks by forecasting a slow recovery in the UK. The research body is expecting total UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to fall 4.3% this year before experiencing modest growth of 1% next year and 1.8% the year after. The forecasts [...]
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is forecasting a bleak outlook for High Street shops after figures show that around 12% of town centre shops are currently empty. The organisation said stores need to be unique with individual character being the key in order to survive the downturn. A report by the BRC found that some [...]
There is bad news today with regard to UK jobs after the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) warned that 334,000 jobs will be axed across the business services sector by 2011. The study suggests that the credit crunch and recession will result in more than half of the jobs that were created in [...]
The Bank of Japan has announced renewed optimism and said that the worst of the recession might be over and has revised its economic outlook upwards. The outlook comes after the bank announced it had retained interest rates at the 0.1% level. Interest rates were cut by 20 basis points in December last year and [...]
Minutes from the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, published today, revealed that extra money supplies were being considered to boost the economy and encourage lending. According to the minutes, all members of the MPC voted in favour of increasing the quantitative easing plan by £50 billion, taking the total to £125 billion. [...]
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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