The Labor Department has revealed the world’s largest economy added 151,000 new jobs last month. The news was gratefully received after concerns of a sluggish recovery, which led the Federal Reserve to introduce a fresh round of stimulus this week. However, the latest figures means the unemployment rate continues to hold steady at 9.6% - [...]
Following a two-day meeting, US central bank, the Federal Reserve, has announced it will introduce a fresh round of stimulus. The move was widely expected after concerns for the US economic recovery amid low inflation and rising unemployment. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has agreed to inject an additional $600 billion (£373 billion), albeit [...]
US central bank, the Federal Reserve, has commenced a two-day meeting today and it is expected to introduce a fresh round of stimulus. There have been concerns for the US economic recovery amid low inflation and rising unemployment. The US central bank looks as if it will adopt measures to safeguard the recovery after minutes [...]
Influential think tank, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR), is urging the Bank of England to be cautious when considering its next move for the UK economy. Speculation is mounting that the Bank of England will pump a further £50 billion into the economy next month via its quantitative easing (QE) programme. [...]
The Commerce Department has revealed a rise in US housing starts for the month of September, but building permits fell, giving mixed signals for the property market. According to the Commerce Department, construction of new US homes rose 0.3% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 units – the highest level since [...]
The FTSE 100 received a boost today after speculation that the US Federal Reserve will provide extra stimulus to strengthen the economy. The news emerged from the Fed’s minutes from the most recent FOMC meeting, which cheered investors. The FTSE closed up 85.76 points, at 5,747.35 - its highest closing level since April 26, and [...]
Japanese core private-sector machinery orders – a highly volatile series seen as an indicator of corporate spending - surged 10.1% in August - confounding expectations of a 4.5% fall. The increase in orders represented the third consecutive monthly rise, according to the Cabinet Office, and follows June’s 1.6% increase and July’s 8.8% growth. The surprise [...]
Australia, which is one of the few developed economies not to have fallen into recession like its counterparts throughout the world, has increased interest rates from 3.25% to 3.5%. It is the second month in a row that interest rates have increased and the move was not unexpected. The Australian economy has benefited from an [...]
Australia, which is one of the few developed economies not to have fallen into recession like its counterparts throughout the world, has increased interest rates from their record low of 3% to 3.25%. The move did not come as a surprise to analysts and further rises in interest rates are expected. Today’s move is the [...]
Exports in the world’s second largest economy fell last month raising concerns that global stimulus packages are starting to decline. Many overseas stimulus measures have already expired, causing economists to warn that as such fiscal support runs its course, exports could slow. According to the Ministry of Finance, Japanese exports fell 36.5% in July on [...]
The US economy, which is the world’s largest, is looking towards a recovery in the latter half of the year, which, according to the Federal Reserve, may lead to cut in its financial stimulus plan. The economy is expected to contract at a much slower pace with output expected to shrink between 1% and 1.5% [...]
European Central Bank’s (ECB) president, Jean-Claude Trichet, is urging major economies not to implement any more stimulus packages by declaring that existing packages are “sufficient”. Stimulus packages have been implemented in many of the major economies throughout the world and are aimed at boosting economies. Mr Trichet said that the stimulus packages already in place [...]
Official data released today showed that the world’s second largest economy contracted at a revised 3.8% in the first three months of 2009. Despite the figure being revised downwards, the economy still shrank at a record pace. Meanwhile, the revised figure translates into an annualised contraction of 14.2%. The export-dependent economy, which was once seen [...]
US President Barack Obama is pledging to create over 600,000 jobs this summer in the US economy after announcing he will increase his multi-billion dollar stimulus package. The news comes a few days after the US Labor Department revealed that the US economy shed 345,000 jobs in May, taking the unemployment rate up to a [...]
India’s exports for March have fallen by a record amount as the country missed a revised export target of $175 billion. In 2007-08, the country posted export growth of 23 percent valued at $155.51 billion. According to figures released by the ministry of commerce in March exports were valued at $11.52 billion, which is down [...]
Last week’s base rate cut to 0.5% was a ‘kick in the teeth’ to savers, the Building Societies Association (BSA) said. Savers “will see their already diminished interest payments fall even further,” said Adrian Coles, BSA director-general. The Bank of England cut rates to a new record low of 0.5% on Thursday in an effort [...]
The world’s second largest economy has suffered its worst ever decline in 35 years the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today. In the period October to December, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell 3.3% - the third consecutive quarter in which GDP declined. In comparison, the euro zone suffered a 1.5% decline while the US, which [...]
Australia’s AUS$42 billion (£19 billion) stimulus package designed to help the country weather the economic downturn has now been approved after it was blocked yesterday by the Australian Senate who called it “financially irresponsible”. Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Prime Minister, vowed to fight for the package saying it is “crucial for the economy“. In response to [...]
Last week, the Australian Government announced a AUS$42 billion (£19 billion) stimulus package designed to help the country weather the economic downturn. However, the plan has been rejected by the Australian Senate calling it “financially irresponsible”. It was intended that AUS28.8 billion was to be set aside for schools, housing and roads, while the remaining [...]
President Barack Obama’s $819 billion (£572 billion) economic stimulus package has been approved by the US House of Representatives. The President hopes to sign the package into law in February and said the package includes $275 billion in tax cuts, including a credit worth $500 dollars for each worker and $1,000 for couples. However, the [...]
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 [...]
FSCS reassures Santander customers
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will protect depositors in Santander, the scheme’s chief executive, Mark Neale, said. Deposits up to the value of £85,000 are protected by the scheme and savers with more than this amount should distribute the money across different banks and building societies, to ensure that the total amount is protected. [...]
Payday loans trapping people in debt
Payday loans have soared in popularity over the past few years, but consumer group Which? warns they are trapping people in a ‘downward spiral of debt’. Problems start to escalate if people are unable to pay back their loan on time, with some companies charging excessively high penalties for late repayments. Which? discovered that Quid24.com [...]
Turmoil in Eurozone increases mortgage costs
The Bank of England has warned that the ongoing Eurozone crisis is pushing up the cost of borrowing on wholesale financial markets. This is making it more expensive for lenders to fund mortgages and they are passing the costs on to customers by increasing their mortgage rates. “In the absence of falls in funding costs, [...]
400,000 more English homes in fuel poverty
An increase in the price of gas and electricity price at the end of 2011 is estimated to have pushed 400,000 more homes in England into fuel poverty, according to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The new projections show that 3.9 million homes in England were in fuel poverty at the end [...]
Charities call for urgent action on housing crisis
A new report claims there is an urgent need for more affordable homes and says that five key housing issues are getting worse. The Housing Report published by the National Housing Federation, homelessness charity Shelter and the Chartered Institute of Housing, calls on the government to ‘get Britain building’ in order to provide the homes [...]
Mortgage lending to first-time buyers up 74% in March
Mortgage lending to first-time buyers soared in March, as house-buyers rushed to buy their first home before the end of the stamp duty holiday. Properties below the value of £250,000, purchased before 24 March, were exempt from the 1 per cent tax. Twenty-four thousand mortgages were approved for first-time buyers in March, a 74 per [...]
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