Finance Matters

• 28Nov

  Recession ‘worse than estimated’

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  From The BBC:

  Chancellor Alistair Darling will say in his pre-Budget report that the economy performed worse in 2009 than he first predicted, Treasury sources have said.Mr Darling is expected to say that the UK economy shrank by 4.75% this year – more than the 3.5% originally forecast in the Budget in March. The adjustment follows the economy’s unexpectedly poor performance in the first three months of the year. But he is likely to stick to 2010 forecasts of growth between 1-1.5%. Return to growthOn Thursday, Mr Darling said that since the Budget forecasts were made, “new data has shown that most economies, ours included, suffered a severe shock in the first quarter of this year”. He added that he still expected a return to growth around the turn of the year. The UK economy has contracted for the past six quarters, but the economies of the US, Japan, France and Germany have all started growing again. Recent UK economic figures, such as retail sales and manufacturing output, have indicated signs of r…

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• 28Nov

  Jaguar Land Rover see sales rise

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  From The BBC:

  Jaguar Land Rover had seen its sales rise 23% in the second quarter after its new models were well-received.Owner Tata Motors said new products such as the upgraded Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Discovery 4 had had successful launches. Although Jaguar Land Rover made a net loss of £60m in the July-September quarter, it was much less than the £240m loss it made a year earlier. India’s Tata Motors made a net profit of 217.8m rupees ($4.7m; £2.8m) That compared with a loss of 9.4bn rupees a year earlier. Tata said Jaguar Land Rover’s performance was the highlight of the quarter. Tata bought the British marques from Ford for £1.7bn in June 2008. Sales volumes at Jaguar Land Rover rose to 44,300 vehicles from 35,900 in the previous quarter. Aggressive cost reduction had also paid off, Tata said. “The [Jaguar Land Rover] business is witnessing some stability in the external environment with certain key markets showing signs of recovery,” Tata said in a statement….

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• 28Nov

  Threshers group axes 2,140 jobs

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  From The BBC:

  Drinks retailer First Quench is closing a further 391 stores, resulting in 2,140 redundancies.First Quench’s brands include Threshers, Wine Rack, The Local, Haddows, Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine. The administrators said the off-licences would close by 20 December at the latest, depending on stock levels. The total number of job losses since First Quench went into administration in October now stands at 5,928, with 1,145 store closures. The group has been hit by the recession and stiff competition. “It remains difficult for buyers to complete deals in the current tough market,” said Richard Fleming of KPMG and joint administrator of First Quench.
  “However, we are still in talks regarding the sale of over 100 stores and hope to be able to make a further announcement about this shortly”. He added that he was optimistic that some of the 391 stores marked for closure on Friday would be sold as a going concern, but with stock now running low in the remaining stores it was necessary to make…

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• 28Nov

  House prices ‘still increasing’

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  From The BBC:

  House prices in England and Wales continued rising in October, climbing by 0.6% according to the latest survey from the Land Registry.It was the fifth month in a row that prices had risen, the Land Registry said. That put the average house price at £159,546, although that was still 3.4% lower than a year ago. The biggest monthly rise was 1.9% in north-west England, while the biggest fall was 2.3% in Wales. “There remains a wide variation in the strength of the pricing recovery between the regions, said Oliver Gilmartin, economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. “Average house prices in London grew at over £4,000 during October whilst Wales witnessed price falls of over £2,000,” he added. “House prices are set to rise further in the coming months supported by an ongoing shortage of property listings relative to demand.” The consultancy Capital Economics predicted that the rise in prices of the past few months would soon run out of steam. “The shortage…

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• 28Nov

  Bank seeks to dismiss fee cases

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  From The BBC:

  Lloyds Banking Group has said it will ask local courts to dismiss thousands of overdraft cases lodged against it for the return of overdraft fees.The claims have been on hold since July 2007 when a group of banks and the Office of Fair Trading started a test case over the fairness of bank charges. The Supreme Court ruled this week that the OFT could not decide the charges were unfair under consumer legislation. Lloyds Banking Group includes both Lloyds TSB and HBOS banks. “As the judgement concludes the test case, the FSA [Financial Services Authority] has agreed that these complaints should no longer remain on hold,” said a statement on the websites of both Lloyds TSB and HBOS. “This means that for those customers who currently have an outstanding complaint about unarranged overdrafts, we’ll be writing to them shortly to let them know what today’s judgment means for them. “We be asking the County and Sheriff Courts to apply the Supreme Court judgement to dismiss any claims they curren…

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• 28Nov

  Spoiled party

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  This time last year, Dubai was making headlines for entirely different reasons.It was the opening party of the Atlantis hotel, the star attraction of the city’s man-made palm-shaped island. Organisers spent millions on the fireworks and even more on the celebrities. As the sky exploded overhead, broadcast live around the globe, it was Dubai’s message to the world that it had arrived. But as Dubai’s elite sipped their champagne, the financial crisis was already beginning to take its toll in the West. For Dubai, this was the last night of extravagance before the credit crunch came knocking. And so, 12 months on, the headlines are very different. But who spoiled the party, and how? Perfect stormLiving in Dubai, as I have for the last two years, it seems everyone has a different theory.
  Some say it was the perfect storm: a property bubble waiting to burst, with prices rising by the day, fuelled by rampant speculation. Built on and bought with borrowed money. No-one asked how, or even if,…

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• 28Nov

  Visa Electron to be phased out

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  From The BBC:

  A card payment service commonly used by customers to avoid high transaction charges when booking flights is being phased out by two major providers.Customers who pay by Visa Electron are not charged transaction fees by airlines such as Ryanair, Aer Lingus, BMIbaby, Easyjet and Flybe. Abbey and Travelex have told BBC Radio 4’s Money Box their cards will not feature Visa Electron by next year. But another banking group, HBOS said it would continue to offer the card. High chargesSeveral airlines now charge a flat fee transaction charge per person, per flight, when customers pay by debit or credit card.
  It can add up to a substantial part of the overall cost. Ryanair charges £5 per person, per flight, even if all the passengers are paid for on the one card, in a single transaction. Vic, from Hertfordshire, contacted Radio 4’s Money Box to complain after Ryanair charged him £20 to pay by credit card. He was buying return flights to Italy for himself and his wife: “I paid &pound…

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• 28Nov

  Pre-pay meters ‘flout price caps’

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  From The BBC:

  Five of the big six energy suppliers still overcharge customers using pre-pay meters, despite new Ofgem rules, the National Housing Federation says.The watchdog capped how much more pre-pay customers can be charged than those paying by direct debit, in September. The NHF says Scottish Power, British Gas, Npower, Scottish & Southern and E.On all failed to meet the cap. Energy retailers denied breaching the rules. Ofgem said it would investigate any objective evidence of overcharging. It says its new rules had already cut energy bills by £96m. ‘Absolute disgrace’Ofgem imposed a cap of £88 on how much more per year gas and electricity companies could charge the UK’s six million pre-pay customers over those who pay via direct debit. This followed a major investigation last year, in which the regulator found that “service costs for pre-payment meter customers are £88 per customer higher than for a direct debit customer”. But the NHF, which represents 1,200 housing asso…

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• 28Nov

  Flood insurance ‘varies greatly’

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  From The BBC:

  There is a lack of consistency in the way insurance companies treat flood victims who are looking to make claims, the National Flood Forum has said.The charity says the problem of people living on the same street being charged very different excesses for flood insurance is of “epidemic proportions”. It adds that people who have claimed for flood damage in the past often find it difficult to get a better deal. Insurers say it is normal for offers to vary for different customers. Same property, different storiesDominic Witherow and Mike Lewin live next door to each other in Chobham, Surrey, in a property which has been split into two homes. Mr Witherow, who moved into the property after previous flooding and has never made a claim, has a flood excess of £100. Mr Lewin, who is with a different insurer and has claimed for past flooding, is looking at an excess of £10,000.
  Both men believe this is unfair. “Mike’s building and my building are the same,” says Mr Witherow. “We are…

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• 27Nov

  US shares slide over Dubai fears

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  From The BBC:

  US shares have fallen on worries about Dubai’s debt problems, with the Dow Jones ending down 154 points, or 1.5%, at 10,309.92, in a shorter trading day.It was the first chance for markets in the US to react to news that state-owned Dubai World had asked for more time to repay its debts. US markets were closed for a holiday on Thursday when other world markets suffered steep losses. However, the main European markets recovered from earlier falls. The main share indexes in the UK, France and Germany had all fallen by more than 3% on Thursday. But after falling further in early trade on Friday, the UK’s FTSE 100 closed up 1%, and both Germany’s Dax index and France’s Cac 40 ended more than 1% higher. Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei index had closed down 3.2% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng ended 4.8% lower. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown described the fall in the markets as a “setback” but said it was “not on the scale of previous problems”. “The world financial system is stronger now and ab…

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