The UK Economy

Euro-area services and manufacturing output fell less than forecast in December, giving hope to a quicker recovery from the debt crisis that is weakening several countries. An index based on a survey of purchasing managers in both industries rose to 47.3 from 46.5 in November, London-based Markit Economics said today, whereas economists had forecast a […]

Standard & Poor’s has become the latest credit rating agency to give the UK government a scare, by downgrading the outlook on Britain’s triple A rating to negative. Fellow agencies Moody’s and Fitch both revised the UK to negative outlook earlier this year. S&P said “The outlook revision reflects our view that we could lower […]

Inflation Down, Eurozone on the Brink AUSTERITY VS INFLATION Politicians don’t like inflation and current austerity dogmas will curb it in the following years.  Goods and services prices will slightly decrease in the UK, US and EU countries. Cutting interest rates even more will prove to be useless: the percentage of inflation we have now […]

Hydraulic fracturing or fracking for shale gas can now again be implemented in the United Kingdom as Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has lifted suspension of the said process over a year after the same was believed to be the cause of seismic tremors in the northwest region of England. In a […]

The UK government has given the go-ahead for Cuadrilla to resume it’s controversial technique known as fracking to exploit gas in Lancashire. Cuadrilla, a UK firm specialising in shale gas, was stopped from fracking after two small earthquakes occurred during it’s previous drilling programme in Blackpool. Fracking involves drilling down and creating tiny explosions to […]

Mick Carney, the next Governor of the Bank of England, has suggested that targeting economic output instead of inflation should be the method in an attempt to revive a weak economy. Considering nominal gross domestic product (GDP not adjusted by inflation) would allow central banks to act more aggressively to counter an economic slump. “If […]

I’ve been watching the FTSE 250 index this morning as it has been struggling to reach its all time high of 12,220.  Through the morning it has climbed over 30 points, but the last four or five were the toughest.  Then, during the noon hour, just when it appeared that the 2007 record was about […]

Many developing countries are using exchange rates as their key tool for monetary policy instead of stimulating domestic demand, spreading the risk of a war between currencies in the near future.  The big concern of Sir Mervyn King, Governor of Bank of England, points out the necessity for the G20 group to address global imbalances […]

Europe’s largest banking business by market capitalisation, HSBC Holdings plc (LSE:HSBA), has agreed to settle the biggest anti-money laundering penalty in history for a bank, the company announced earlier today. In a statement, HSBC stated it is to pay US$1.92 billion (£1.2 billion) to authorities in the United States and is close to “finalising an […]

The US and UK have issued a joint paper outlining an action plan for struggling banks. The plan hopes to protect the tax payer from costly financial bail outs. The plans would involve the creation of one single regulator, which would be responsible for overseeing the insolvency of a big international bank. The plan was […]