Leader of the Conservative party David Cameron was finally accepted as the UK Prime Minister late on Tuesday after his party and the Liberal Democrats (the Lib-Dems) agreed on a five-year deal to form the UK’s first coalition government since the Second World War, on the promise of forming a “strong and stable government”. Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg was confirmed as deputy PM while George Osborne will become Chancellor of the Exchequer. After winding up five days of political negotiations, Cameron pledged that the new government’s number one priority will be to tackle the UK’s £163 billion budget deficit., As Gordon Brown announced his resignation, Messrs. Cameron and Clegg declared that they had struck their remarkable political bargain to provide strong and stable government at a moment of crisis. A nation awaits with bated breath for the outcome

Meanwhile its has been announced that the number of UK unemployed rose by 53,000 to 2.51 million during the three months to March According to official figures issued by the Office for National Statistics the level of unemployment total is now since December 1994. On the positive front, the total number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell in April by 27,100 to just over 1.5 million, leaving the unemployment.

Data released on Tuesday by the Financial Services Authority revealed that banks and building societies had to deal with more than two million complaints between July and December 2009, as a waiver that had allowed them to defer claims relating to high penalty charges was lifted. The figure was more than double than processed in the first half of the year. The steep increase was mainly a result of the backlog of complaints relating to unauthorised bank charges. Complaints were put on hold for over two years as the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) entered a battle with a number of big banks to obtain a final ruling on the legality of the high level of charges imposed on customers who exceeded their overdraft limit. The waiver was lifted in December when the case was resolved, with banks winning a surprise victory over the OFT. Banks are estimated to have made more than £2.6 billion a year from unauthorised overdraft charges and might have faced claims of more than £1 billion if had they lost the case.

Blame for the "financial and economic crisis" in the UK has been attributed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). To private sector wages tumbling further behind inflation more than in any other industrialised territory, excluding Mexico, Turkey and Iceland Research by OECD the Paris-based think tank revealed the gross average wage in Britain rose by 0.5 percent to £33,745, which is calculated to be the equivalent to a 1.6 percent fall after factoring in inflation. The OECD went on to warn that low-salaried workers were also more vulnerable to losing their jobs.

All in the entire financial well being of UK consumers was seen to deteriorate during the first quarter of 2010, following four successive quarters of relative improvement. A spokesperson for the body behind the index explained that the downward trend has been largely due to lower levels of earnings growth and the negative impact of higher levels of inflation on real disposable income. In addition, economic activity remains relatively subdued and there has been only a very slight improvement in the labour market.

UK Households have been helped during the last few months by some recovery in house prices and relatively strong equity market performance, but the prospect of cuts in public spending and increases in taxation following the election are expected to add further to the pressures facing households.

More evidence of a lack of confidence among UK consumers was an announcement from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) of a sharp fall in UK retail sales for the month of April.

According to the BRC, the total value of sales fell by 0.2% in April on an annual basis, while the like-for-like drop was 2.3%, making for the steepest fall since December 2008.

Again, the downturn could be attributed to uncertainty which surrounded the general election as well as the timing of Easter.

Broadband provider TalkTalk Telecom have announced their plans to target rapid customer growth in 2010, after it successfully boosted its new customer base by 144,000 in the final quarter of its year to March. In its first trading update since demerging from Carphone, TalkTalk credited their customer growth to the firm’s appeal as a straightforward broadband service provider and to the success of high-profile campaigns. However TalkTalk has ruled out the likelihood of rivaling Virgin Media and BT by buildings its own fibre optic cable to. Meanwhile, British Sky Broadcasting and Virgin Media have been seeking to encourage more new customers through bundling telecom and TV services.

A new company that has been formed after the T-Mobile and Orange’s UK merger has been named Everything Everywhere.

In a statement issued on Tuesday Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, announced the name, along with a plan to launch a "new assault" on the UK business market. Orange and T-Mobile will retain their distinct brands, with their own shops, campaigns, pricing and service centres.

The Orange and T-Mobile brands have 713 high street stores between them. Orange is the larger brand of the two, with 17.3 million customers to T-Mobile’s 13 million. Orange also brings with it 863,000 fixed-line broadband customers.

Doubts about the strategy of both British Airways and the Unite union began to emerge as the two sides squared up for the three weeks of strikes the airline’s cabin crew have threatened from next Tuesday.

Industry analysts began to state their doubts and fears about the length of the threatened stoppages, and concern about how long it would take to restore relations between management and staff. Strong backing was given to Mr Walsh’s determination to lower costs permanently at the loss-making airline, although none wished to be publicly identified. But it is clear that both the BA chief and his counterparts at Unite are about to enter the most difficult phase of a dispute that has lasted more than a year

There were signs of a growing Eurozone backlash arising against the outgoing (and incoming) UK government for refusing to take part in the eurozone’s €750bn rescue plan. So strong was the reaction that a senior French policymaker was heard to suggest that it may cause Europe to think hard about coming to the UK’s help in a sterling crisis.

Analysts pointed to a “crack in the sign of strong unity in Brussels as, with astonishing insensitivity for the dramatic situation, Britain coolly declared that the crisis was a problem for the Eurozone, as if the crisis would make a point of avoiding the UK.” In the wake of the eurozone rescue deal, there is a view in government circles that speculators might turn their attentions to sterling,

Meanwhile a warning has emerged among some leading global financial experts that that the European debt crisis posed the biggest threat to the US economy, despite some recent relatively upbeat assessment of the US financial recovery.

Gold on Wednesday traded near record prices amid investor concerns that the massive rescue plan for indebted eurozone states will hit currencies. Gold prices hit record highs in Europe amid volatile financial markets. Spot gold in London surged to above $1,230 a troy ounce, exceeding the record set in December last year. Gold prices in euro terms also hit a fresh all-time high of €969 an ounce in late London trading, up almost 26% since the start of the year.

financial

• Why You'll Never See Another George Soros (or Warren Buffett) Again No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, you...
• What is The Holy Spirit? What is The Holy Spirit: While many Christians understand the...
• Why the Bank Loves You! Love is such a strong word. It makes me think...

Tags: Bank, Bank Charges, Banking, British airways, British Economy, British Retail Consortium, British Sky Broadcasting, Carphone Warehouse, Conservative, David Cameron, Economics, Economy, Employment, Financial News, Financial Services Authority, George Osborne, Gold, Liberal Democrats, Money, Nick Clegg, Office of Fair Trading, Orange, Overdraft Charges, T-Mobile, TalkTalk, UK Banks, UK consumers, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, unemployed, Virgin Media

The weaker Pound and an insurge of wealthy foreign shoppers wishing to take advantage of the satiation have contributed to a major revival in retail sales in the shopping centres of London during September. The British Retail Consortium who are involved in producing the London Retail Sales Monitor, have announced that retail sales in central London were up by 7.5 percent on September 2008. The largest month-for-month increase in 12 trading months. Even more encouraging, were sales figures released by the New West End Company, who monitor sales from retailers based around the highly exclusive Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street region in the West End of London. There retailer were reporting an increase of 25 percent jump in sales in September when compared to August, as well as a 4.6 per cent increase on September 2008.

Britain’s banks could be in line to pay windfall taxes that could reach punitive levels. if they are unable or unwilling to provide acceptable guarantees that they will discard their long running practices of tax avoidance. In a recent statement, officials of the UK Treasury described speculation that tax raids on the banks under their spotlight was imminent is being unfounded, as well as reports that higher levels of corporation tax would be imposed as “not being currently under consideration”. The major UK banks have been negotiating with the Inland Revenue and the Treasury for some time to ensure that their tax payments adhere “to the spirit of the law rather than the letter”. The “powers that be” are looking for a new approach from the banks, and on that will be in contrast to their approach before the bail out of the financial system late last year, that was largely funded by the British taxpayer..

The Treasury is working on a new tax code with the banks, with a final verdict expected ahead of the chancellor Alistair Darling’s forthcoming pre-Budget report. One Treasury official said: “If the banks were not participating we would need to look at other channels, but at this stage they are playing ball

Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways has announced that he has held "open and frank" talks with union leaders, in order to prevent cabin crew balloting for strike action. Both sides have been involved in a long running conflict regarding BA’s plans to cut 1,700 jobs as well as making further changes to pay and conditions for other members of the BA staff. The union representing the airline’s employees, Unite, has stated that they will have little option but to ballot for industrial action if BA’s changes are imposed on their members. A representative of BA announced that Mr Walsh had written to unite joint leader Derek Simpson after the meeting, while the union declined to comment.

The pound continued its steady rise, despite faltering slightly against the Euro and the Swiss Franc.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6425
• Pound/Euro 1.10969
• Pound/Japanese Yen 147.9728
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6587

The FTSE 100 had a good day, up 91.34 points to 5281.54 The FTSE 250 rose strongly on the day’s trading, up 138.44 points to close on. 9564.64.

Chairman of the US Fed Ben Bernanke announced on Monday that the US and Asia adopt policies that prevent a revival of global economic imbalances as the financial crisis ebbs, and such a move was “extraordinarily urgent”. Bernanke went on to warned that global imbalances, meaning the large gaps between national saving, consumption and investment rates that were reflected in large trade deficits and surpluses needed to be bridged. The US must establish “a sustainable fiscal trajectory anchored by a clear commitment to substantially reduce federal deficits over time”. he continued

The Dow Jones index recovered strongly on Monday’s trading; climbing again above the 10,000 points mark, as encouraging US bank results fuelled optimism for the global economy. The Dow Jones was up .96.28 points to close on 10092.19 The NASDAQ Composite index also recovered all of Friday’s losses, up 19.52 points to close for the day on 2,176.32.

Annual car production in China has topped the 10 million mark for the first time in the industry’s history, with car makers boosting output to meet the ever growing demand. Despite the global downturn in demand for new cars for most of the major car makers, demand for cars is bucking the trend with state incentives, such as tax cuts on small cars, going a long way to boosting sales

The price of oil has continued to rise, mostly on the back of the weak US dollar reaching a new high for 2009. US crude settled up $1.08 at $79.61 in New York trading, while London Brent rose 78 cents to at $77.77

financial

• Pebble Beach Golf Course - Del Monte Course    Pebble Beach Golf Course - Del Monte Course  ...
• Tax Credits and Tax Benefits from the Stimulus Package a.k.a The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Today, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and...
• Finovate Spring 2011 Live Blog (Part 6) This is a continuation of my Finovate Sprint 2011 Part...

Tags: Alistair Darling, BA, Bank, Banking, Bond Street, British airways, British Economy, British Pound, British Retail Consortium, British taxpayer, corporation tax, Credit Crunch, Currency, Derek Simpson, Dow Jones, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, Inland Revenue, London Retail Sales Monitor, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, New West End Company, Oxford Street, pre-Budget report, Recession, Regent Street, Retail, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, tax avoidance, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, UK treasury, Unite, Weak Pound, West End, Willie Walsh

Royal Bank of Scotland, 70 per cent taxpayer owned, has begun to act in that manner by announcing that they will be halving some of their draconian fees for customers who find themselves overdrawn.

From the beginning of October, fees for paying an item will be cut in half to £15 a day while see the fee for returning a cheque, direct debit or standing order cut to £5 from £38.

Brian Hartzer, new chief executive of RBS’s retail bank, is believed to be behind this refreshing change in attitude from the bank.

Signs of rampant chauvinism in the UK financial sector abound with reports that female employees are not getting their fair share on pay and bonus packages, with a considerable number receiving around 80 percent less in performance-related pay than their male counterparts, according to a recent report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

According to the inquiry female employees in the financial sector earned an average of £2,875 in performance-related pay per year, compared to an average of £14,554 for men, making a gender pay gap of 80 percent,.

The finance sector has long been known as showing the highest overall gender pay gaps in the UK economy, with women working full-time jobs earning 55 percent less than men, compared to a pay gap of 28 percent for the general economy.

Results from a recent survey shows that the British consumer is still feeling the pressure of the recession, the survey suggest that in spite of official data to the contrary, UK households remain cautious about spending.

The survey held on behalf of the British Retail Consortium has shown that strong demand for consumer goods that was seen earlier in the summer flagged during August, with only food sales increasing

Overall, total sales rose 2.2 per cent in August from July, down from rises of 3.6 and 3.2 per cent in the two previous months.

T-Mobile and Orange plan to merge their UK businesses, creating a mobile phone giant with a client base of 28.4 million customers.

If completed, a deal between Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and Orange owner France Telecom would see a firm with sales of £8.2 billion. (9.4 billion Euro)

The new company will be the UK’s largest provider of mobile phone services, with about 37% of the UK market.

Spokespeople for both Orange and T-Mobile said that the deal would "bring substantial benefits to UK customers", and promised expanded network coverage, better network quality and improved customer services.

However, it is likely that competition authorities in the UK and EU will probe the deal which is due to be signed in November.

Recession-hit customers flocking to discount clothing chain Primark helped its parent Associated British Foods lift its profit forecasts on Monday.

ABF said it expected Primark to achieve an annual like-for-like sales rise of seven percent in the second half of Primark’s financial year to September 12.

Primark’s momentum is in stark contrast to retailers in the middle price range market, who have reported declines in sales for the first half of this year.

Primark’s sales had been boosted not only by consumers being more price conscious during the recession, but also by good weather and a more fundamental shift shopping at discount retailers.

Shares in Yell, the directories group struggling under a £3.8 billion debt burden, continued on its amazing recovery on Tuesday shares in the company rose a further 21.5 per cent to 65 pence, making their gains in the past month 113 per cent.

There was a little less excitement around the FTSE 100 index as the news from Cadbury began to calm down. The index rose by 14.16 points to close on 4947.34. Meanwhile the FTSE 250 continued to climb on Tuesday, up 98.87 points to close on 9,035.33.

The pound recovered against the dollar, yet continued to fall against the Euro.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6494
• Pound/Euro 1.1382
• Pound/Japanese Yen 152.2926
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.727

Figures released by the US Federal Reserve have shown that showed consumer debt has been reduced by a record amount in July. Reasons given ranged from rising job losses and uncertainty about the stability of the economic recovery.

Consumer credit fell by $21.6 billion (£13.1 billion) from the previous month June, considerably more than analysts expected. Debt reduction in June was also considerable, $15.5 billion from $10.3 billion in May.

Trading on Wall Street returned briskly to life after the Labour Day holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average looked refreshed up 56.07 points to 9497.34 while the NASDAQ Composite also climbed 18.99 points to close on 2037.77.

Due to concerns over its reserve status, the US dollar slumped to its lowest level in almost a year on Tuesday. The feeling amongst analysts was that the dollar was suffering from data suggesting the global economy was recovering.

The dollar index, which tracks its progress against a basket of six leading currencies, fell to a low of 77.093, its weakest level since September 2008.

For the first time in six months, the price of gold, which has risen 13.6% in value this year, has reached and passed the $1,000 an ounce marker. In early morning trading in London, spot bullion traded as high as $1,005, up one per cent on the day. It is the third time since March 2008 that gold has moved above the key level.

financial

• The World's Best-Performing Asset Class With the recent sell-off in global stock markets, it's now...
• Why Invest? Do you have some money socked away, or are you...
• Are LED Christmas Lights Really more Cost Effective? It's that time of year again. I'm talking about that...

Tags: Associated British Foods, Banking, Brian Hartzer, British Economy, British Pound, British Retail Consortium, Cadbury, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, Economy, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Financial News, FTSE, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Orange, Primark, RBS, Recession, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, T-Mobile, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, US Federal Reserve, Wall Street, Yell

It was a day of mixed statistics yesterday in the UK, where it was announced that manufacturing output had declined by 5.5% in the first three months of 2009, the highest quarterly fall since records began in 1948.

On a more positive note the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also announced that the trade deficit in the UK narrowed by £300 million pounds in March. (£2.5bn in March from £2.8bn in February)
The British Retail Consortium was happy to be given the opportunity to make a positive announcement and that was that retail sales had raised in April, and not only that but at their fastest rate in three years. To be truthful, these figures were boosted by the fact that Easter fell in April this year, and when taking the overall picture of retail sales between March and April the figures are slightly less encouraging, but far from being a disaster.

April house prices in England and Wales were also showing signs of recovery, falling at their slowest pace since February 2008. There seems to be an upsurge in buyer interest, according to the monthly survey released the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

It appears likely that the Bank of England, when they release their quarterly Inflation Report today, will announce a reduction in their recent growth forecasts. Some tough questions are expected to be fired at the Bank’s governor Mervyn King over his decision last week to increase up quantitative easing measures.
The FTSE put up a weak performance yesterday, especially from the banking sector. Lloyds Banking Group fell 10.3 percent to (9 pence to 89.1), while Barclays faded by 6.5 percent (17 pence to 268). RBS were the best of a bad lot, slipping only 5.6 per cent (3.5 pence to 43.5)

The FTSE 250 index rose by 13.56 points to close on 7,623.92
while the FTSE 100 finished the session down 9.96 points, at 4,425.54
The currency market was stable, with the dollar continuing to slip backwards against the major currencies, while the pound climbed to a four-month high as recent signs that the UK economic downturn has reached bottom.

· Pound/US dollar 1.5267

· Pound/Euro 1.1191

· Pound/Japanese Yen 147.16

· Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6888

Trading on Wall Street was best described as indifferent with the Dow Jones Average rising 50.34 to close on 8469.11. Nasdaq fell 15.32 points to 1715.92
Bank of America announced on Tuesday that they had succeeded in raising $7.3billion by selling their stake in China Construction Bank . BoA held close to 6 per cent of CCB shares which they have sold of a group of Asian investors. They money will go towards increasing their cash reserves as stipulated by the US treasury during their recent “fitness” tests.

In Asia, Hitachi the electronics giant displayed that when they make a loss, they do it in style. In fact, the company succeeded in breaking the Japanese record for an annual loss, largely due to a dramatic reduction in sales. Their net loss for 2008 was a whopping 787.3billion yen (£5.3billion). Small time when compared to some of the losses made in the US and UK, but still enough to bring tears to a few Japanese eyes. To leave room for some optimism, Hitachi announced that they only expect to lose around 270bn yen in 2009.

There weren’t too many happy and smiling faces around yesterday at the Chinese export board on news that export figures from April showed a decrease of 22.6% from the comparative month in 2008, making for the sixth successive month of decline.

However financial analysts continue to send out positive signs that when the global economy does regain full steam, it will be China pulling on the whistle. Their optimism has been backed up by the news that business investment in China has increased by 30.5 per cent since the beginning of the year.

Another sure but slightly worrying sign that things are slowly creeping back to normal is the news that crude oil prices have risen to their highest level in six months.
US crude rose as high as $60.08 a barrel before falling back, while London Brent crude rose to $58.64.

The price of US crude is now up by about 80% from its recent low of $32.70 a barrel, but thankfully very far away from its record high of $147 from the summer of 2008. Let’s hope these days do not return.

• Bank Of America Buys Countrywide To Save On Taxes Bank of America (BAC) recently announced it would be buying...
• Fishing Report: February 18, 2011 Lakes Anderson: If you are going to try to catch...
• Fishing Report: May 27, 2011 Lake fishing has continued to see good results even with...

Tags: Bank, Bank of England, British Retail Consortium, Economy, Financial News, Money Markets, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, UK Banks