Economic News

Dan Atkinson, Mail on Sunday22 July 2007, 12:57pm Millions of people face mortgage misery because of the inflationary effect of the boom in the City, it will be claimed tomorrow, even though house prices are already starting to cool. WANT TO KNOW MORE? COMMENT: Class war that could hurt us all NEWS: BoE boss wants house prices in inflation OTHER STORIES BoE boss wants house price ...

(Updates with more quotes from Sarkzoy and Brown) PARIS (Thomson Financial) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said they will send their foreign ministers to New York to back a resolution at the United Nations Security Council calling for an African Union and UN peacekeeping force in Dafur. "If the resolution is passed, we are even ready to go togethe ...

China has raised interest rates to keep inflation in check and stop the globe's fourth-largest economy overheating. The People's Bank of China (PBC) ordered an increase of 0.27% of a point in commercial banks' benchmark one-year deposit and lending rates. The increases will take effect on 21 July, the bank said. The one-year benchmark deposit rate will move to 3.33% from 3.06%, while the one-year lending rate will rise to 6.84% from 6.57%. The move comes a day after data showing that China' ...

HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - Share prices closed at record highs as China Mobile and mainland financials posted strong gains following a rally on Shanghai bourse, with investors also cheering a solid finish of the Dow Jones Industrial Average overnight. Dealers said the market has put aside concerns over monetary tightening measures in China, with the focus shifting to upcoming corporate results announ ...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The hawks on the Bank of England's rate-setting body will see today's news that the UK economy continued to grow robustly in the second quarter as further evidence of the need for higher borrowing costs. In its preliminary estimate for the second quarter, the office for National Statistics revealed that the UK economy grew by 0.8 pct from the previous quarter, above e ...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China's central bank said it is raising benchmark bank lending and deposit rates by 27 basis points, effective tomorrow. It said the move, the third rate hike this year, is designed to guide credit and investment growth, stabilize expectations for inflation and maintain the overall stability of prices. The People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website that the be ...

LONDON (Reuters) - The economy accelerated slightly faster than expected in the second quarter of 2007, boosting expectations that further interest rate rises will be need to curb inflation. The Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product rose by 0.8 percent in the three months to June, notching up its sixth consecutive quarter of above-average growth. Analysts had forecast growth ...

HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - Morgan Stanley said it has upgraded its growth forecast for China's gross domestic product (GDP) this year to 11.3 pct from 10.5 pct after the government announced strong second-quarter figures. China's National Bureau of Statistics announced second-quarter GDP growth of 11.9 pct year-on-year, the highest level since 1995. CPI inflation also reached 4.4 pct year-on-year fo ...

SEOUL (Thomson Financial) - The Bank of Korea (BoK) said Friday it is planning to abandon its long-held tradition of using the call rate as its monetary policy target and will instead adopt a new benchmark interest rate in an effort to boost the effect of its rate-decision power on financial markets and the economy as a whole. The new benchmark interest rate, to be determined every month, will be ...

SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) - The US dollar was slightly higher against other major currencies halfway through Asian trading hours Friday, with traders expecting narrow ranges to be maintained heading into the coming week given the lack of fresh key indicators tonight. At 2.22 pm here (0422 GMT), the dollar was at 122.20 yen, up from 122.15 yen in early Asia trade while the euro was at 1.3798 doll ...