Euro falls as European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi hints at more monetary stimulus November 12, 2015 The euro fell against the dollar this morning after European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi strengthened speculation that the Bank is preparing to fire yet another bazooka to kickstart the sluggish Eurozone economy. Speaking to the European parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, Draghi said: "Downside risks stemming from global growth and trade are clearly visible." "Moreover, inflation [...]
UK house prices will rise by 25 per cent in the next five years as demand outstrips supply: Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors November 12, 2015 House prices will rise by 25 per cent over the next five years, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has estimated, issuing another warning that supply is failing to keep up with demand. Properties sold at higher prices throughout the UK for the third consecutive month in October, with 49 per cent more chartered surveyors seeing an increase, [...]
Law Society recommends minimum salary for trainee solicitors based on combination of living wage and training course fees November 11, 2015 The Law Society has today recommended those hiring solicitors on a training contract should pay a minimum salary of £20,276 in London and £18,183 outside of London. The representative body for legal eagles based their calculation on a combination of the living wage, set by the Living Wage foundation at £9.40 per hour in London [...]
Eurozone asset purchases could be ramped up in December, says European Central Bank’s Benoit Coeure November 11, 2015 A European Central Bank (ECB) official has hinted that the central bank could ramp up its €1.1 trillion (£780bn) asset purchase programme as soon as December. “The debate is open” due to the fact that inflation expectations are still weak, Benoit Coeure told Le Figaro in an interview due to be published tomorrow. A major issue [...]
A tiny insect is wiping out Florida orange groves and causing juice prices to soar November 11, 2015 Orange juice drinkers face a fresh squeeze. Orange juice futures – agreements to buy orange juice at a specific future date – are soaring in price due to growing concerns over pest damage across orange producers in Florida. Citrus greening – a bacteria spread by the Asian citrus psyllid bug that causes fruit to shrink [...]
Portuguese Socialist Party tries to stop imminent privatisation of state-owned airline day after ousting centre-right government November 11, 2015 Well that didn’t take long. Portugal’s Socialist Party has penned a letter requesting that state-owned company Parpublic halt the privatisation of airline TAP. The letter, which has been seen by Reuters, comes just a day after a Socialist-led coalition managed to oust the centre-right government from office. The new left-wing coalition could be brought into [...]
CBRE hired by billionaire Carl Icahn to sell Fontainebleau casino November 11, 2015 Commercial real estate giant CBRE has been appointed by billionaire business magnate Carl Icahn to sell the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, an unfinished 68-story hotel casino on the Las Vegas Strip, the company said today. The owners of the resort, which was planned to be a $3bn (£2bn) development which included a 3,800 room hotel, last week [...]
Fitch warns that Portuguese government debt is at risk of downgrade if Socialists take over November 11, 2015 A major ratings agency has said today that Portugal’s government debt is at risk of losing its already mediocre credit rating if the Socialist-led coalition is appointed to govern. Fitch said: Fiscal relaxation resulting in a less favourable trajectory in government debt/GDP levels could lead to negative rating action, as could weaker growth that had a [...]
EU migrant crisis: Advanced countries need to take more migrants, says International Monetary Fund boss Christine Lagarde November 11, 2015 The head of the influential International Monetary Fund has thrown in her two cents on the EU’s migrant crisis with a two-page blog post published today. Lagarde said those who had accepted large numbers of refugees should be commended, but that “others, especially among the advanced countries, should look at how they might increase their [...]
Six things we were not expecting to learn from today’s ONS labour market figures November 11, 2015 The Office for National Statistics (ONS) today revealed its latest Labour Market Statistics, showing that employment is on the up, with 31.21m people in work for July to September. So far, so good. But we’ve dug a little deeper into the statistics to discover six things we weren’t expecting to learn from this morning’s announcement: [...]