U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said he’ll raise taxes on banks and savers, while cutting welfare spending in a budget tomorrow that aims to close a record deficit without strangling an economic rebound. Osborne said yesterday the “pain” of the biggest spending squeeze in 30 years will be spread over the Parliament’s five- year [...]

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China’s yuan is facing increasing pressure to appreciate because of a widening interest-rate differential, the country’s top currency regulator said in a statement. Speculative capital is flowing into China disguised as foreign direct investment and trade accounts through “underground money shops,” Yi Gang, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said at a briefing in Beijing [...]

China, forex, Interest rates, UK Hide

LONDON: Britain, which emerged from recession in the final quarter of 2009, faces a “high” risk of relapse and below-average growth in the next two years, the British Chamber of Commerce warned on Sunday. “The UK economic outlook will remain highly uncertain for a considerable time,” the BCC said in the group’s latest economic forecast. [...]

recession, recovery, UK, unemployment Hide

While the eyes of the world focus on Greece’s debt crisis, investors in Edinburgh are busy preparing for the U.K. to be next. Turcan Connell, which caters to rich families, expects the pound to lose between 20 percent and 30 percent against the dollar once investors turn their sights on Britain as the government sells [...]

bonds, debt, forex, greece, UK Hide

Let’s play a game. I’ll remove a few words from the following piece of debt market research and you guess which country the strategist author is talking about. “The country urgently needs a credible and enforceable austerity plan — the worry for **** investors is that, despite all the **** posturing, politicians still fail to [...]

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BRUSSELS: The European Union, shaken by Greece’s fiscal crisis and struggling to get its new institutions into gear, hopes to relaunch itself this week as leaders mull improved, coordinated economic governance. Europe’s post-recession economic woes, highlighted by the swelling deficits of Greece and others, will be the focus of a European Union summit on Thursday. [...]

credit, debt, Euro Zone, global markets, greece, recession, spain, UK Hide

LONDON: The Bank of England on Thursday is expected to call an end to its radical policy of pumping out new money after Britain narrowly emerged from recession in the fourth quarter of 2009, analysts said. Most economists also predict that the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will leave its key interest rate unchanged [...]

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For Singaporeans looking to invest in property, the home market is just one option. Ms Jacqueline Wong, head of residential at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), says that as prime residential properties in Singapore become more expensive, investing overseas becomes an affordable option. This year, investors may want to venture further – particularly to Britain and [...]

housing, housing loans, investments, UK Hide

LONDON : Britain on Monday led a push for a global deal on reforming the banking sector that could include widespread agreement for an extraordinary tax on lenders amid concerns that the US may go it alone. Paul Myners, the minister charged with overseeing Britain’s financial services sector, said international agreement on the issue “would [...]

Bank failures, taxes, UK Hide

LONDON: Britain will likely discover on Tuesday that its record recession officially ended in the fourth quarter of 2009, but the country’s huge debt pile is set to stunt recovery, economists said. The Office for National Statistics will publish data widely-expected to show that the economy grew by 0.4 per cent during the final three [...]

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