Economic News

LONDON (AFX) - The UK is set for a period of below-trend economic growth from the second quarter of 2007 until the first quarter of 2008 as rises in interest rates start to take their toll, the British Chamber of Commerce forecast. The BCC predicted annual UK GDP growth will fall from an above-trend 3.0 pct in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 2.2 pct by the first quarter of 2008, but with a "di ...

LONDON (AFX) - European government bonds remained lower, continuing last week's falls amid a dearth of data out of Europe today. Bonds have been under pressure since European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet's press conference on Thursday last week, when he gave a strong hint that euro zone interest rates will rise again next month and left the door open to a possible further hike beyon ...

(Updates with analysts' comments) Falls in oil prices caused raw materials costs to fall by their biggest amount since November 2002 in the year to January, though output prices rose as firms were able to pass on some of last year's sharp rises in input prices, official figures showed. The office for National Statistics revealed that input prices on a seasonally adjusted basis fell by 2.0 pct in  ...

SYDNEY (XFN-ASIA) - Following is the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest quarterly statement on monetary policy released earlier today: Australia's economic performance during 2006 continued to be marked by strong growth in incomes and employment. Capacity utilization remained high and there was a pick-up in underlying inflationary pressures in the first half of the year. These developments took  ...