A recent report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has stated that the expected substantial cuts in the public sector, will mean that around one in three of the employers in the sector plan to shed jobs during the first quarter of 2010, which is now halfway through.

Despite the UK emerging from recession, CIPD’s latest quarterly survey found that the jobs outlook had worsened. UK unemployment currently stands at 2.46 million, with the number of people out of work steadily rising since the summer of 2008, despite a surprise fall in the three months to November.

British investors concerned about the outlook for UK inflation, consumer spending and the public finances following the recession, received some news that their fears would be confirmed. Inflation spiked up to a 14-month high of 3.5% in January, data released by the Office for National Statistics confirmed, as effects of the VAT hike and a number of other one-off factors such as the sharply falling oil and food prices of a year ago began to take their toll. The Bank of England’s forecasts suggest inflation should fall below the 2 per cent target in 2011 even though its latest analysis concedes that inflationary pressures are currently stronger than anticipated.

Taxpayers could be forced to wait five years before they start recouping the tens of billions of pounds spent propping up the banks.

UK Financial Investments, which oversees the Government’s stake in RBS, Lloyds and Northern Rock, fears it will be 2015 before it can sell off the shares.

It had hoped to start off-loading sooner after the bailout led by Chancellor Alistair Darling, but now believes that may not be possible without big losses. Officials, who have been careful not to give a timetable that could drive down share prices, are working on the basis of five years, while the Treasury fear that they may be forced to retain their minority stake for much longer.

According to a survey held by the Institute of Directors, sixty percent of UK companies who applied for a bank loan in 2009 ended up getting turned down. This sad and ridiculous situation has even led to company owners and directors being reduced to borrowing on their credit cards. Results of the Institute of Directors’ survey shows that the banks are simply not listening to Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling orders to start lending again as payback for pumping £850 billion into the economy.

Even more of a cause for concern is that the report shows that 83% of businesses who were rejected for bank finance are also not receiving any information about alternative finance that may be available to them, including the Government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee.

The report shows that increasingly more businesses, and especially the smaller ones, are turning to forms of expensive unsecured finance, such as credit cards, to get them through their short-term cash-flow problems. Particularly hard hit by the loan famine are small to medium sized UK companies whose desire to expand will be critical to creating jobs and dragging Britain out of recession.

On the same tack, credit card interest rates in the UK have climbed to their highest level since 1998. Millions now find themselves facing crippling repayments on their debts, despite the historically low Bank of England base rates. Average credit card interest has now soared to a staggering 18.8%, leaving consumers facing the prospect of paying more than 40% on the cash they have borrowed, an increase of 25% in the last four years.

Barclays Bank has announced an increase in their full-year profits of 92% in 2009. There full year profits were an outstanding £11.6 billion ($18.2 billion), with the figure being largely boosted by the sale of its BGI fund management arm to US firm BlackRock last year. Without the input from the sale of BGI, Barclays would have made just £5.3 billion, with £2.5 billion of that coming from their investment banking division…

Barclays, who did not take any direct state help during the financial crisis, also saw the level of its total bonus payouts rise to £2.7 billion, with £1.5 billion of that to be paid out for 2009 and a further £1.2 billion to be paid out over the coming three years.

Virgin Media are believed to be in the final stages of an agreement over the sale of its television channels to rival BSkyB. , the channels that are entirely owned and produced by Virgin Media, Virgin 1, Bravo, Challenge and Living, are due to be sold to BSkyB. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has a 39.1 percent share in BSkyB.

Meanwhile, Cheltenham based fashion retailer Supergroup, have announced that they ate to launch a flotation designed to rise up to £125 million pounds. If successful, the valuation of the company is expected to be around £400 million, roughly nine times Supergroup’s forecasted 2011 earnings

The pound fell back against the dollar, closing at 1.5633 while also slumping to 1.1453 against the Euro.

Overall, the FTSE 100 was stronger at 5,244.06, a rise of 58 points, and its sixth rise in seven trading days

Foreign demand for US Treasury bonds and notes in December fell by $53 billion as China was seen to be reducing its holdings. China cut its holdings by $34.2 billion, will still remaining the second-biggest US debt holder after Japan.

On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average continues to climb up 169.67 points at 10268.81. The NASDAQ gained a further 30.66 points to close on 2,214.19

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Tags: Alistair Darling, Bank, Bank of England, Banking, Barclays, BGI, Bravo, British Economy, BskyB, Challenge, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, CIPD, Dow Jones, Economy, Enterprise Finance Guarantee, Financial News, FTSE, Institute of Directors, Living, Lloyds, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Northern Rock, Office for National Statistics, RBS, Recession, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Supergroup, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK Financial Investments, UK government, UK Recession, Virgin 1, Virgin Media, Wall Street

The UK in the first decade of the new century recorded the lowest economic growth of the postwar period and the worst returns for stock market investors since the 1930s. Information provided by the Office of National Statistics points out that gross domestic product, on average, rose by only 1.7 per cent annually in real terms throughout the so-called noughties, making them Britain’s weakest period of economic expansion of any since the war years. The manufacturing sector was particularly hard hit with output actually contracting over the decade by 1.2 per cent annually.

Meanwhile, the British stock market suffered its weakest performance of any decade since the Great Depression, with prices on the FTSE All Share Index recording negative returns, averaging minus 1.8 per cent per year. The particularly sharp contraction in the real economy as a result of the financial crisis of the past 18 months continues to fuel pessimistic assessments of the UK’s prospects for the new decade.

In his New Year message, that well know optimist Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to give an upbeat assessment of Britain’s economic prospects for the forthcoming 12 months. Under pressure amid Labour Party concerns that they are destined to lose the next election, Brown is expected to take a gamble on a positive prediction that UK unemployment will have decreased by the end of 2010, with more smaller businesses starting up during the period, His gamble is calculated by details of latest forecast from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) stating that UK unemployment will peak at 2.8 million in 2010, and would continue to rise for the first six months of the new year, despite the recovery in the UK economy. .

Earlier this year, the CIPD had said it expected unemployment to peak at 3.2 million as a result of the recession. The total number of UK unemployed in currently stands at 2.49 million, 7.9% of the population, with around a quarter of these job losses happening in 2009.

UK homeowners pumped almost £5 billion into their home equities during the third quarter of 2009, according to recent figures issued by the Bank of England. Analysts pointed out that the trend of homeowners repaying mortgage debt would continue to restrain consumer spending, as they took advantage of record low interest rates to reduce mortgage debts. This development is in healthy contrast to much of the previous decade when homeowners had continuously drawn on equity from their homes to fund durable purchases.

Pressure is being applied to the UK government to make some changes to the Sunday trading laws in time for Christmas next year. Boxing Day falls on a Sunday in 2010, and shopping centres are lobbying to relax the law that restricts outlets of more than 3,000 square foot to just six hours of trading during this peak trading day. According to surveys, the number of shoppers soared by 17.9 percent last Sunday against a year ago, making it the highest increase in UK consumer traffic on record for a December 27.

Waitrose, the John Lewis-owned supermarket, reported an increase of 13.5 percent for the week before Christmas compared to the same period last year, making it their most successful Christmas on record. Total sales jumped 20.5 percent to reach £134.6 million s in the week to December 26, compared with £111.7 million for the same period in 2008.

Sterling remained below the $1.60 level on early week trading, even falling a little, whilst while remaining static against the Euro

• Dollar 1.5924
• Euro 1.1089

London stocks pushed higher on Tuesday, the first day back from the Christmas break, following the lead set in global equity markets in the previous session.

With US stocks failing to add much momentum, London’s FTSE 100 stayed at the same level for much of the session, adding 35 points or 0.7 per cent by the close to 5,437.61, extending its winning run to five days.

This was the index’s highest level in 15 months and took it above the point at which it stood on September 12, 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed.

Shares in US airlines fell on Monday following the alleged bomb attack on a US plane bound for Detroit, fueled by fears that renewed security concerns could further depress demand for air travel. Airport security measures have been tightened following the security incident on Christmas Day.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average returned from the Christmas break in buoyant mood, climbing 36 points to close on 10,521.1 while the NASDAQ Composite jumped just three points to 2,288.46. Retailers had initially lifted the market after data from the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs showed like-for-like sales across the sector were up 2.3 per cent last week from the same period a year ago

US house prices rose in October for the fifth month in a row, according to a leading index.

Prices were 0.4% higher than they were in September on a seasonally-adjusted basis, according to a recently published index.

Confidence among US consumers has shown a larger-than-expected rise; with improved optimism over the jobs market saw consumer confidence hit a three-month high in December

Oil prices have climbed to more than $79 a barrel, reaching the highest levels for five weeks. During Monday’s trading in London, US crude touched $79.12 a barrel before falling back later to $78.77.

Heating oil futures led the gains, while London Brent crude rose by more than a dollar to $77.32 a barrel.

Prices rose following forecasts of colder weather in the United States, and the expectation of increased consumption and falling reserves.

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Tags: Bank, Bank of England, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, British stock market, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, CIPD, Council of Shopping Centers, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, Economic Growth, Economics, Economy, Employment, Financial News, FTSE, Goldman Sachs, Gordon Brown, Heating oil, House Prices, John Lewis, London Brent crude, Manufacturing, Money, Money Management, NASDAQ, Noughties, Office of National Statistics, Recession, Savings, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, UK unemployment, Waitrose, Wall Street