A curated selection of links we hope can enlighten us all; some come from our corner, some do from other corners of the net. And as always, our comment widgets are anxious to get your suggestions. Facebook? That was something for my father Will we miss Sarko? Neither religion, nor philosophy: physics, I tell you Germany doesn’t show any respect The euro, that sentiment Hollande is a menace for you, too…
LONDON | The Confederation of British Industry said Thursday that household spending will remain subdued, with weak wage growth and unemployment rising to a peak of 2.86 million in the first quarter of 2013. The CBI published its latest quarterly forecast in a somehow hopeful tone, though, voicing prospects of inflation improving next year with further falls, and disposable incomes beginning to recover. The business association pointed out that recent…
MADRID | The Spanish global infrastructure company Ferrovial has published its results for the first quarter of 2012. The firm said it obtained €192 million of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation compared with €172 million in the first three months of last year, that is, a rise of 11.7%. In the first few months of 2012, Ferrovial’s main businesses improved, particularly revenues at its British division Amey, and international construction, mainly Budimex. Revenues amounted to…
LONDON | Although less than 0.5% of homes in Britain would be affected by the increase in the stamp duty rate for multi-million pound homes announced in the 2012 budget, according to research by Lloyd, the very top end of the market just hit a historic high in sales. Does it need cool down? The total number of sales of properties that cost at least one million pounds in Great Britain was…
International Financial Analysts AFI in Madrid added their opinion in agreement with more or less everyone else: the mix of relaxed monetary policy, fiscal retrenchment and depreciation of the sterling pound that has been engineered in Downing Street by the Coalition government isn’t working. In fact, AFI said the UK’s is the economy with the weakest recovery response against the crisis among the main developed economies. As the Bank of…
LONDON | J.P. Morgan asset management had some cold words on the news that the UK has entered a double dip recession. Tom Elliott, global strategist at the investment company said that “For most people, the country has felt like it has been in recession since late 2008, so news of an official double dip will be no surprise.” In a short note released after the British office for national statistics…
LONDON | Already in the mood to dismiss 2012 as a lost year for the UK economy? Analysts in the City of London waived as a non-event the preliminary GDP estimate of this year’s first quarter, released Wednesday by the office of national statistics, which showed that the British economy had contracted by -0.2%. The negative figure added up to a -0.3% fall in the economy in the final three months…
LONDON | Consumers’ discretionary spending in the UK continued to deteriorate in March, and after inflation fell 1.1% from a year earlier, reaching its lowest level since February 2011. This equates to £113 less a year to spend on non-essential items. In its latest Spending Power Report released Monday, Lloyds TSB said hopes for a pick-up in economic activity in 2012 will go unanswered as consumers feel biggest squeeze in…
LONDON | In its global macro outlook report, investment company Schroders said on Friday that its eyes were on France amidst ongoing euro zone concerns and despite the uncertainty surrounding Spain. The upcoming elections could thwart France’s plans to implement State budget cuts, the Schroders paper highlighted, while the European Central Bank refinancing lines would have ring-fenced the Spanish banking sector from liquidity scarcity, unlike Italy’s. “France is the euro zone member currently…
LONDON | The UK’s Coalition government launched Tuesday a new joint enterprise capital fund that will invest at least £40 million in high-growth potential small and medium sized companies in the country. The fund is called Notion Capital and is the eleventh and largest finance support programme for SMEs in the European Union. According to the official press release, a total of £62.9m has already been committed to it from the…