WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
CHINESE PREMIER DECLARES VICTORY OVER INFLATION
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has declared victory over domestic inflation, saying that the government has successfully reined in price pressures.
“China has made capping price rises the priority of macro-economic regulation and introduced a host of targeted policies. These have worked,” Mr Wen writes in today’s Financial Times. “We are confident price rises will be firmly under control this year.” Consumer price inflation has been rising since the middle of last year, reaching a 34-month high of 5.5 per cent in May.
THREAT TO NAME AND SHAME PFI COMPANIES
A Conservative MP is to identify public finance initiative groups that refuse to offer the taxpayer a voluntary rebate on their profits. The same threat would also apply to those that do not sign up to a proposed Treasury code of conduct aimed at cutting the cost of schemes built under the private finance initiative, Jesse Norman, the MP for Hereford said.
TWITTER RISKS USER BACKLASH WITH PLAN FOR BOLDER ADVERTS
Twitter is looking at introducing advertisements among the short messages that users see in the most active part of the social networking service, according to people with direct knowledge of its plans. The move comes as Twitter looks at a wider range of options to generate revenues from a service that has so far failed to make money from its audience as effectively as rivals such as Facebook. The move to place “promoted tweets” in the main “stream” of tweets on the service is likely to be controversial with users who have seen only limited and unobtrusive marketing messages so far in Twitter’s five-year history.
THE TIMES
FSA WARNS OF NEW BREED OF LIAR LOANS
The City Watchdog has warned that buy-to-let mortgages designed for landlords are being misused by brokers to get around the rules requiring borrowers prove their income. Before the credit crunch, self-certification mortgages allowed borrowers to obtain a home loan without proving their income, but these became known as “liar loans” because they were fraudulently used by some home owners to exaggerate earnings.
CHEQUE GUARANTEE CARDS TO END
The cheque guarantee system will be withdrawn next Thursday (June 30), despite protests from consumer groups and charities, particularly those representing older people, so that it will make it impossible to pay by cheque at many retailers, petrol stations and restaurants.
The Daily Telegraph
MOBEN AND DOLPHIN SHOPS COLLAPSE
The parent company of Moben kitchens and Dolphin bathrooms has applied to go into administration, becoming the latest victim of the slowdown on the high street and the moribund housing market. Homeform, owned by Sun Capital Partners, the US private equity firm, filed an “intention to appoint administrators” with the courts yesterday.
IRISH DATA REVEALS TWO-SPEED ECONOMY
Strong net exports and profits from Irish-based multinationals saw GDP jump 1.3% in the first quarter. The data reverses a 1.4% drop in GDP recorded in the previous quarter, but economists cautioned that the turnaround was more to do with external demand than any recovery at home. Consumer demand dropped 1.9% in the quarter, the worst in two years.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
GOOGLE SERVED WITH SUBPOENAS IN BROAD ANTITRUST PROBE
The US Federal Trade Commission is poised to serve Google Inc. with civil subpoenas, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling the start of a wide-ranging, formal investigation into whether the Internet-search giant has abused its dominance on the Web. Google and the FTC declined to comment.
GEITHNER PRAISES IMF CANDIDATE CHRISTINE LAGARDE
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner praised French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde yesterday, saying through a spokeswoman that she is “an exceptionally talented candidate” to head the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Geithner has yet to endorse a candidate, though the US has historically backed a European for the top IMF job.