Deloitte: Facebook added $6.6bn to the UK economy in 2014 January 20, 2015 Facebook added $227bn (£149bn) to the global economy in 2014, according to a Deloitte and Touche report commissioned by the social media giant. Although Facebook only generated revenue of $12bn (£7.9bn) in the financial year, the report calculates all the economic activity “enabled” by the social media platform. These include businesses with pages [...]
11 times The Sun’s Page Three girls showed how deeply they cared about the UK economy January 20, 2015 The end of an era, or good riddance? However you feel about Page Three, there's no arguing with the fact it's a British institution. But today came the news that after 45 years, The Sun has apparently decided to put an end to its traditional topless model slot. The news was revealed by sister title The [...]
2015 IMF growth forecast: UK pulling ahead but global economy downgraded January 19, 2015 The UK has managed to avoid a downgrade to its 2015 growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund. The IMF’s updated predictions released today also place the UK as the fastest economy in the G7 in 2014 with growth of 2.7 per cent. However, the UK is set to lose its “fastest G7 economy” crown [...]
Fall in oil prices provides boost for UK economy January 18, 2015 The UK economy is set to benefit from the collapse in oil prices, according to the most recent quarterly forecast from the EY-sponsored Item Club. The economic forecasting group has stated that the decline in oil and other commodity prices will provide a “shot in the spending arm” for UK consumers, who will have more [...]
Interest rates to remain at historic lows until 2016 amid falling oil price January 18, 2015 The collapsing price of oil could see interest rates remain at their historic lows until 2016, according to top economists. The UK is likely to grow at 2.9 per cent this year, say the EY Item Club in part thanks to lower oil prices. The group hiked their forecast by 0.5 per cent point since [...]
New Quindell deputy chairman Jim Sutcliffe to step down from the Financial Reporting Council January 16, 2015 New Quindell deputy chairman Jim Sutcliffe will step down from his role as chairman of the Financial Reporting Council's (FRC) codes and standards committee "with immediate effect", the organisation said today. Sutcliffe was appointed as Quindell's new deputy chairman earlier this week, causing its shares to rise more than 26 per cent. But the troubled [...]
Swiss franc surges after central bank scraps currency ceiling and slashes interest rates January 15, 2015 The Swiss franc has surged against the euro after the central bank scrapped a currency "ceiling", and took interest rates even further into negative territory. The Swiss franc was up as much as 37 per cent against the euro before later paring gains. Swiss shares shed some 10 per cent after investors rushed into safe-haven [...]
Euro tumbles to new nine-year low after Swiss central bank slashes interest rates January 15, 2015 The tumbled to new nine-year low after the Swiss central bank slashed interest rates to -0.75 per cent and scrapped its currency "ceiling." The euro fell to $1.1685 against the US dollar following the shock announcement by its central bank. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 initially shed 2.1 per cent before recovering to trade down 1 [...]
Company floats in 2014 score higher than FTSE 100 average January 14, 2015 IF YOU invested in any the 30 companies that completed public floats last year, chances are you’ll be happy you did. Research out from Deloitte shows the 2014 additions to the share market generated an average return of 12.4 per cent, outperforming the FTSE 100 by 14.4 percentage points. An investment of £1,000 in each [...]
Policy hawks stand ground despite sinking inflation January 13, 2015 A drop in the inflation rate to 0.5 per cent has not been enough to reverse the positions of monetary policy hawks – economists favouring a hike in interest rates. “We think the economy is growing strongly enough to take a normalisation of monetary policy and we’re sticking by that,” James Sproule, chief economist at the [...]