Economic News

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The dollar remained range-bound ahead of the release of fresh US housing figures today, with investors squaring up their year-end positions helping to keep the greenback well supported. The crucial year-end period, when institutions rush to shore up their balance sheets, means many funds are being converted back into dollars and risk appetite is particularly low. &qu ...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Gold rose back above the 800 usd mark after poor US housing data weakened the dollar and brought more safe haven buying into the precious metal, as the evidence for an economy in turmoil continues to mount. November new housing construction starts fell 3.7 pct, with the number of single-family homes being built falling to their lowest level in 16 years. "The US  ...

(adds extra comment) WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Poland's finance minister backed up his revised budget draft in a parliamentary debate today with promises to steadily cut back on bureaucracy and public debt over the new government's four-year term. Jacek Rostowski also said he had full confidence in the central bank's ability to bring inflation back under control after recent jumps in food pri ...

Ray Massey and Jane Merrick, Daily Mail18 December 2007 Reader comments (1) More than 3m motorists are at risk of identity fraud after their personal details went missing in the American midwest. Lost: Private details of learner drivers went missing several months ago WANT TO KNOW MORE? How to beat ID fraudsters OTHER STORIES UK's top promoter slams ticket 'robbery' Npower shocks with 17% price hike How to find the cheapest Christmas turkey Junk mail vultures rob ...

Britain would have seen slower growth and higher inflation, had it not been for the recent wave of immigration, a report has said. The Ernst and Young ITEM Club also said the UK would grow by 3% a year if immigration continued to rise at the same rate as in the past two years. Foreign-born workers appear to have filled about two-thirds of new UK jobs between 2002 and 2006, the report said. They also may have made it tricky for UK youngsters to get entry level jobs. And low inflation was ach ...

The percentage of landlords selling their properties is at a three-year high, according to a surveyors' group. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) blamed the move on previous interest rate rises and a more cautious stance from lenders. It said new landlord instructions, an important indicator of the strength of the buy-to-let market, also dipped in the quarter to the end of October. Yields on flats continue to fall thanks to the oversupply of such properties. Some analysts f ...

The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has denied that he criticised the Treasury for its handling of the Northern Rock crisis. Mr King told MPs he had not said that the department was "unable to focus because morale throughout the government is so low". The comments had been attributed by economist Irwin Stelzer to a senior Bank of England official. Mr King said he had met Mr Stelzer but insisted the comments were not his. "None of the comments in the article I recognise and they ...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Gold was steady in early London trade, as the recent recovery in the dollar's strength was offset by a higher oil prices. At 9.28 am, spot gold was trading at 796.40 usd per ounce, up slightly from 794.80 usd in late New York trades yesterday. "The greenback's strengthening against the euro comes in the wake of the US economy's stronger-than-expected performance ...

JAKARTA (Thomson Financial) - The Indonesian government has yet to decide how to limit fuel subsidies to restrict any increase next year in its spending on subsidies due to the high price of crude oil, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Tuesday. The government currently subsidizes about 60 percent of the fuel consumed nationally. The prices of subsidized fuels were las ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown will host German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a meeting in the first half of January on financial market stability. "I have invited Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy to London so that we can discuss the proposals in the paper we agreed and issued a few weeks ago," Brown told parliament on Monday. Reporting  ...