GDP

Retail sales are up 1.3 pct year-on-year after the official figures were released by the Office of National Statistics showing a whopping 4.4 pct increase in non-foods.

The Bank of England has voted 7-1 against raising rates in their latest interest rate meeting, minutes reveal today.

This week ahead sees a number of key economic announcements - retail sales for June, GDP figures for Q2 and a Rightmove house price survey released today.

The Office of National Statistics has just published a batch of figures on the UK's workforce, nearly coinciding with the Friday, 16 July's submission to The Treasury by most government departments of their proposed budget cuts. The Treasury requires drafts based on 25 percent and 40 percent cuts to the 2010-2011 figures and these will form the basis of the autumn Spending Review and November's Budget Address to Parliament by George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

A swing from surplus to deficit has shocked economists as the imports to the Eurozone jumped 4.6 pct leading the trade deficit to -£3.4 billion down from +£500 million in the last month.

Shares in British banks were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as fears of a weaker global economic recovery once more entered the front of investor's minds.

UK GDP remains stuck in slow growth as latest revised figures from the ONS (Office of National Statistics) show that growth remains small at 0.3 pct.

Shares in British banks were mixed in morning trading on the FTSE 100 following news that the British GDP growth was unchanged at 0.3 per cent for the first quarter.

NIESR, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, has forecast Q2 GDP growth of 0.7 pct in its latest estimates for three months ending June 2010.

Britain's largest company, BP, is the world's third largest oil major, a global energy firm the main products of which are oil, natural gas and alternative fuels. Its 2009 revenues of just over $246 billion exceed the GDP of Finland and it employs over 80,000 people. The company's headquarters is in London, its American base is in Houston, Texas and it is listed on both the London and New York Stock Exchanges with British and American shareholders each accounting for some 40 percent o...

Next week will see the Bank of England make its latest decision on interest rates and could see Monetary Policy Committee members take a good look at the possibility of raising interest rates.

The UK Public sector is set to shed over half a million jobs according to the new Independent body – the Office for Budget Responsibility, set up by the new Government.

Final revised GDP figures for growth in the UK are to be released late after a 'potential error' in the data led to concerns over its reliability.

The FTSE 100 share index is awaiting the UK's final estimate of GDP for the first quarter of 2010 after the markets took in a sudden revision downwards of US Q1 GDP.

The US economy grew at an annual rate of 2.7% in the first three months of 2010, slower than previously estimated.

Shares in British banks were mixed on the FTSE 100 in morning trading ahead of this weekend's G20 meeting in Canada.

Shares in Berkeley Group Holdings were up on the FTSE 250 despite the property company reporting a drop in pre-tax profit of over eight per cent in the full year ended 30 April.

The new Coalition government of UK has set out its plans to cut the huge structural deficit that it faces since coming to power in the General Elections that took place earlier this year on 6th May.

Once the full extent of the financial crisis in Greece became apparent, the governments of the EU, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, set about putting together a rescue package which eventually also took account of money market pressures against Portugal and Spain. Owing to several delays in getting this massive project under way, the money markets rapidly lost confidence in any determined action from the EU and Eurozone countries and had started to concentrate, not simply ...

In 1971, the Bretton Woods Gold-Dollar exchange rate system broke down, bringing in an era of floating exchange rates with all their uncertainty. Governments, especially the USA's and UK's may have been relieved of defending a particular parity by having to take deflationary action but this simply passed the burden on to trade and industry. As rates of exchange might vary at any time, both exporters and importers feared exchange rate losses, so increasing risk and uncertainty in the busi...

The British Retail Consortium has welcomed the revised growth forecasts provided by the newly created Office of Budget Responsibility, saying the new forecasts "better reflect reality".

The UK's Office for Budget Responsibility has set out its forecast for economic growth after the previous forecasts were too optimistic.

When The Bank of England's (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee meets later this week, they are certain to maintain the same low benchmark rate of 0.5% that they've had since March 2009.

Britain's new coalition government needs to think medium-term says OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

GDP growth in the first quarter of 2010 has been revised upwards thanks to an increase in production and service industry output, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The Office for National Statistics is expected to release its revised figure for GDP for the first quarter of 2010, after initially reporting GDP growth of 0.2 per cent for the quarter.

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts? It has been touch and go this past month or so as to whether or not a wooden horse would make a suitable coffin for the euro. The EU itself has been shaken at its very core by a rift between President Sarkozy of France and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel when, was been reported, the French President banged his fist on the table and threatened his country would pull out of the euro if Germany did not give its full backing to a rescue/bailout package for Gre...

This week ahead sees radical changes - with leaked details showing their to be 21 new bills - aimed at pushing through dozens of new laws over the next 18 months.

The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, is to launch a new Office of Budget Responsibility that will be tasked with holding the government to account on cutting its budget deficit.

David Cameron received a timely reminder on his first full day as Prime Minister that solving the economic problems of the nation should be of foremost concern to his new government.