Economic News

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The next move in UK interest rates "must clearly be down", a leading business lobby said. "The next move in interest rates must clearly be down. In spite of the strong GDP figures for the second quarter of 2007, the economic outlook has worsened considerably following the recent credit crunch," said David Kern, Economic Adviser to the British Chamb ...

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - Slower growth and not inflation is now the biggest risk to the US economy, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart warned today. He cited three risk factors -- housing, consumer spending and business investment -- which pose a danger to the economy. On housing, Lockhart said the bottom of the downturn "could be a ways off -- potentially in the ...

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - The Federal Reserve's policy priority should be stabilizing the economy, it's goal should be "to reduce frequency and severity of recessions," San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen said today -- at least recent economic research provides "theoretical underpinnings" for that view. Yellen's comments were in a research paper sh ...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at 5.75 pct when it announces its monthly policy decision on Thursday, though a majority of analysts now expect rates to fall within the next six months. All 37 of the economists surveyed by Thomson Financial News expect that the Bank of England base rate will be left unchange ...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Wall Street is looking at a lower open, as investors brace for a raft of economic data that will help them better determine whether the Federal Reserve will proceed with a fresh cut in interest rates. Remarks from former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan that he is increasingly pessimistic about world economic growth also unsettled investors. According to sprea ...

ZURICH (Thomson Financial) - The University of Zurich's centre for economic research (KOF) said it raised its Swiss 2007 GDP forecast to 2.8 pct from 2.4 pct, with growth having reached its peak in mid-year. A significant slowdown is expected in 2008, with GDP growth seen at 1.9 pct as compared to a previous forecast of 2.5 pct. However, growth should accelerate in 2009 to 2 pct. Consumer deman ...

German retail sales fell by more than expected in August as unseasonably wet weather kept shoppers at home and hit sales of new clothing. Retail sales fell 1.4% compared with July and dipped 2.2% from August 2006. Consumption among German consumers is traditionally low and worries about inflation also encouraged them to save. The Bundesbank's measure of retail sales that includes cars and petrol stations fell 0.1% from July and dropped 3.2% compared with August 2006. "The rise in food and en ...

The former head of the US Federal Reserve has denied that regulators failed to foresee the problems which caused the global credit crunch. Alan Greenspan said they had not acted on concerns about complex and risky financial deals because only very wealthy people invested in them. In an interview with BBC Radio 4, he also said that he was increasingly pessimistic about the world economy. But Mr Greenspan said the risk of recession was "still less than 50-50". However, he added: "It's still le ...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The theme of broad dollar weakness continued as yesterday's very poor US housing data sparked talk of further interest rate cuts to come from the US Federal Reserve. Figures showed new home sales in the US slumped by 8.3 pct in August from a year earlier, keeping the euro close to the record highs against the dollar reached yesterday of 1.4189 usd and sparking talk th ...

There are signs the Japanese economy has not yet escaped from deflation, with consumer prices falling for the seventh straight month. Inflation fell 0.1% in August compared with the same month last year, making a rate rise from the Bank of Japan less likely before the end of the year. Industrial production was stronger than expected in August, despite the problems on global stock markets. Industrial production rose 3.4% compared with July. It was helped by a recovery in car production, which ...