Sunday, 29 January 2012

Economics

The latest news, analysis and comment on the UK and global economy.

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ECONOMICS NEWS

EU leaders holding up vital Greek debt deal

Pressure from European Union leaders for more fundamental reforms in Greece is holding up the vital debt deal that would mean private creditors to the country taking losses of as much as 70pc.

28 Jan 2012

| 1 Comment

Euro leaders braced for tense summit

Crackling tension in Davos is set to spill over into a charged EU summit

28 Jan 2012

| 8 Comments

Week ahead: Jan 30 - Feb 3

Royal Dutch Shell, BT and Ryanair are among the companies to update investors on performance this week.

28 Jan 2012

| Comment

Is David Cameron surrendering his veto to Europe?

If he caves in to Brussels, the Prime Minister will miss a huge opportunity, argues Iain Martin.

28 Jan 2012

| 35 Comments

Greek PM to meet banks on 'tough day'

Negotiations between Greece and its private creditors continued this weekend in a desperate attempt to secure a preliminary deal before Monday's European Union summit.

28 Jan 2012

| 118 Comments

Pension income driven down by Bank printing extra money

The Bank of England’s emergency programme of printing money to support the economy has helped push pension incomes to record lows, its own figures showed yesterday.

28 Jan 2012

| 51 Comments

Debt crisis: as it happened - January 27, 2011

Fitch has cut the credit ratings of five eurozone countries including Spain and Italy, but held Ireland's rating unchanged, as the outlook worsens for the region's indebted nations.

27 Jan 2012

| 306 Comments

Osborne gets power over BoE in a crisis

The Chancellor will have the power to force the Bank of England to pump cash into failing lenders in a future financial crisis under radical new laws published on Friday.

27 Jan 2012

| 27 Comments

US fourth-quarter growth of 2.8pc disappoints

The US economy grew less than forecast in the final quarter of last year, according to new figures that economists say signal the first three months of this year are likely to be weaker.

27 Jan 2012

| 24 Comments

Davos 2012: as it happened, January 27

Europe needs to "show the colour of their money" before Britain will stump up more cash to bail out its struggling countries, George Osborne has said.

27 Jan 2012

| 64 Comments

German minister hits out at Britain over fiscal treaty

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble took a jab at Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday, blaming him for Europe's failure to agree a common debt-reduction treaty.

27 Jan 2012

| 76 Comments

Brussels summit hopes

Top stories: EU summit, LSE, Hornby and the week ahead

27 Jan 2012

| Comment

Bill Gates: 'I wrote Steve Jobs a letter as he was dying. He kept it by his bed’

People’s plutocrat Bill Gates talks about friendly rivalry, and how to get bankers to part with their money. By Mary Riddell.

27 Jan 2012

| 154 Comments

US growth expectations cemented by spending

An increase in spending by US companies last month has cemented expectations that the world's largest economy accelerated in the final quarter of 2011.

26 Jan 2012

| 3 Comments

Chancellor unveils new powers to rein in banks

The Treasury will on Friday publish plans for a radical overhaul of financial regulation that will hand the Chancellor new powers to take charge in a crisis and rein in the might of the Bank of England.

26 Jan 2012

| 53 Comments

Debt crisis: as it happened, January 26, 2011

State-backed lender Royal Bank of Scotland has awarded chief executive Stephen Hester an annual bonus of 3.6m shares, worth £996,000 at today's closing price.

26 Jan 2012

| 615 Comments

Can the Germans stop being German?

Angela Merkel will eventually be forced to accept the inevitable, says Jeremy Warner.

26 Jan 2012

| 486 Comments

Nick Clegg is right to sound the alarm on Osbornomics

Where are the Conservative ideas on stimulating economic growth, asks FraserNelson.

26 Jan 2012

| 320 Comments

China and Africa to be centre of world trade

Stephen King, group economist at HSBC, has predicted a return to the world economy of 1,000 years ago - with the centre of world trade centred on China, India, Indonesia, and the east coast of Africa.

26 Jan 2012

| 6 Comments

Retail sales suffer biggest fall in three years

Retail sales fell by their largest annual amount in three years during January, according to the latest gloomy set of economic figures.

26 Jan 2012

| 21 Comments

Gates: Don't ignore the hungry

Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft turned philanthropist, urged the G20 to keep world hunger on the agenda despite the financial crisis, as he pledged $750m to the global Aids fund.

26 Jan 2012

| 9 Comments

'Minimum wage destroys jobs'

Tidjane Thiam, chief executive of Prudential, has branded minimum wage legislation across Europe an "enemy" of young people and a "machine to destroy jobs".

26 Jan 2012

| 31 Comments

Ireland is 'posterchild' for indebted Europe

Ireland's efforts to impose tough austerity measures and radical public spending cuts is a model that all European countries should adopt, the prime minister of Finland said at Davos.

26 Jan 2012

| Comment

Davos 2012: as it happened, January 26, 2012

World Trade Organization's Pascal Lamy warns the West not to make a 'bogeyman' out of China.

26 Jan 2012

| 109 Comments

Olli Rehn: more public money could be needed for Greek bailout

The European Union's top economic official Olli Rehn has said that more public money will be needed to make up a shortfall in a second bailout for Greece if private bondholders agree to take a share of losses.

26 Jan 2012

| 8 Comments