Thursday, June 24th, 2010
The Budget has been and gone. The focus was on debt reduction, a review of costs and questioning about how and where further savings maybe generated. Overall an exercise which organisations of all types and sizes will be...
Monday, June 14th, 2010
There may be some bumps in the road to economic recovery ahead as has been indicated by the disappointing growth in services showing a slowdown during May in both new business and employment. Analysts had expected a strong reading...
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
The government wants banks to "lend" more, the banks need to shrink their balance sheets. Are the two incompatible? Today's budget changed the "net lending targets" for RBS and Lloyds to "gross lending targets" instead. Is it just political semantics...
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Most people are aware of the general duty increases for petrol, diesel and other fuel oils as a result of previous budget announcements. However, fewer purchasers are aware of the triple whammy for road fuels implemented from 1st April. ...
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Who read recent headlines and thought that the recovery from recession was greater than expected? Me too! When the ONS announced its growth revision upwards from 0.1% in Q4 '09 to 0.3% I thought, well its not much more, but what...
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
A survey of 55 analysts from UK financiers suggests a rise in base rate to 1% in Q4 this year, followed by 0.5% increases each subsequent quarter; seeing 2.5% by Q3 2011. The survey was conducted by Reuters on 7th January...
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Will borrowing costs go up this year? The Bank of England has started signalling that base rate may rise in the coming months. The unequivocal warning comes from one of the bank's policymakers, Andrew Sentance, in an interview in today's Guardian. Controlling...
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show that during November the cost of factory raw materials and overheads have risen at their fastest pace this year. The main reason given seems to be the steady increase in...
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
The CBI advised yesterday in its latest service sector survey of an unexpected fall in sales and profits in the three months to the end of November. The statement says that after the modest improvement in the three months...
Monday, November 16th, 2009
Access to finance remains a serious problem for British businesses, despite the Bank of England pumping £200 billion into the economy to boost money supply and stimulate lending. In the latest Monthly Business Survey, published today by the British Chambers...