Pound falls after uk recession risk
Pound falls against dollar and euro on 'recession risk'
The pound has fallen sharply against the dollar and the euro after a Bank of England policymaker said the UK could yet fall back into recession.
The pound fell 2.4 cents, or 1.5%, against the dollar, to $1.503. Against the euro, it fell 1 cent, or 0.9%, to 1.100 euros.
The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee member Andrew Sentance said there was a chance of a double-dip recession.
The pound has been falling recently in the run-up to the general election.
"You have to recognise there is some risk of a double dip, but that's not the central forecast," Mr Sentance said.
The UK exited recession during the last three months of last year, but growth remains weak.
There are also concerns about the high level of UK public debt, although figures released on Thursday suggest borrowing this financial year will come in under the government's forecast.
Deficit cuts
Uncertainty about who will win the election, and whether there might be a hung parliament, has increased concerns about plans to cut debt levels.
This uncertainty has weighed on the pound.
The government has been forced to borrow heavily during the downturn, and the UK's budget deficit currently stands at 12.6% of GDP, one the highest in Europe.
Labour has announced plans to reduce the deficit to 4.7% by 2015, arguing that making more drastic cuts could harm the UK's recovery from recession.
But a European Union report released earlier this week said the plans were not ambitious enough.
The Conservatives also argue that cuts need to be made more quickly.
From the bbc
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: cuts, defecit, double dip, pound falls, uk Recession
Pound slides against dollar on UK economic worries
Pound slides against dollar on UK economic worries
The pound has fallen to a nine-month low against the dollar with fears over the strength of the UK economy largely blamed for the slide.
Sterling fell 1.4 cents to $1.5261, the weakest since May 2009, and also dropped back against the euro. Analysts said investors were increasingly concerned that the UK would struggle to tackle its deficit. There are also worries that GDP growth of 0.1% seen in the final three months of 2009 may be revised downwards.
The next revision of GDP will be released on Friday and if it proves to have been a negative figure, that would show the UK had failed to emerge from the uk recession.
Last week, figures showed that UK inflation had accelerated to 3.5% and that public finances had deteriorated further after the government borrowed another £4.3bn in January to plug the growing hole in the UK's finances.
"The moves in sterling have gone further than most other currencies because of the poor UK data, raising concerns that weaknesses in the economy remain," said Lauren Rosborough, currency strategist at Westpac.
The UK's deficit was 11.8% of GDP last year and is forecast to climb further in 2010 to levels similar to that of beleaguered Greece.
Bank of England governor Mervyn King this week told MPs that he believed there was no danger of a downgrade on the UK currency's AAA status.
However Rabobank International currency strategist Jeremy Sketch said that many investors were not convinced about the security of its rating.
"Sterling is being seen in the risk bucket and risk is off the agenda right now," Mr Sketch told Bloomberg.
Some observers have also suggested that the political uncertainty facing the UK is also contributing to sterling's weakness.
Opinion polls suggest that the lead of the Conservative Party over the governing Labour Parliament is narrowing.
This increases the prospect of a hung parliament - seen as troublesome for struggling economies as it makes it harder for whoever is in power to quickly act to begin tackling economic problems.
Categories: uk Recession Tags: currency aa status, dollar, stirling, uk Recession
Retail sales fall
Retail sales fall
Poor winter weather drove UK retail sales down by 1.8% between December and January, the sharpest drop in 18 months, official figures have shown.
The fall was more than three times faster than analysts had forecast. However the figures were weighed down by the inclusion of petrol in the official figures for the first time as drivers stayed at home in the snow.
The data, from the Office for National Statistics, adds to concerns about the fragility of the UK economic recovery. Sales by value were up 0.9% from January 2009. Fuel sales slipped by 11.1% on the month. When the impact of car fuel sales was stripped out, overall retail sales fell by 1.2%. Food sales fell by 2.4%, but the ONS said the cold weather had boosted sales of clothing.
Double-dip' risk
The period covers the first month since Value Added tax (VAT) returned to 17.5% after a temporary drop to 15%. This is thought to have brought some sales forward to December, thereby hurting the January figures.The data follows on from news that UK inflation had accelerated to 3.5%, that the government borrowed another £4.3bn in January to plug the growing hole in the UK's finances and there had been an unexpected rise in people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance. "January's retail sales figures round off a pretty awful week for news on the UK economy," said Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics."Of course, we knew the January sales figures would be bad after the VAT rise and bad weather. But the drop is even worse than the retail surveys had suggested." He added that sales could bounce back in the coming months - but that as people's wages grew only slowly and prices roses, spending growth was likely to slow.
"At the very least, these numbers provide a very weak platform for sales in the first quarter of this year and therefore raise the chances that the economy may succumb to a double-dip uk recession," Mr Loynes said.
The so-called 'double dip' refers to an economy in recession returning to growth, then quickly contracting again.
Categories: The future Tags: double dip, retail, sales fall, uk Recession
universities following the recession today
Universities following the uk recession
Today we thought it would be an idea to show just some of the interest the uk recession has in universities. In the uk and abroad students are looking up various information on and about the uk recession. The entries below are just some of the visits to uk recession.com on the 18th january 2010. There are many more universities and colleges logged for this day but we will show just a few.
University of Brighton
Hi brighton uni, we hope you found what you were looking for.
Edinburgh university
A direct visit from the edinburgh university
Liverpool university
Another direct visit from liverpool uni.
De Montfort university
Searched for "recession depression" Read more...
Categories: uk Recession Tags: brighton, de montfort, edinburgh, liverpool, madrid, manchester, nottingham, plymouth, uk Recession, universities
housing market 2010
2010 housing market recovery ?
The begining of 2010 has seen some improvement in the uk housing market. People's confidence seems to have returned to pre uk recession levels.
Recent figures show that around 81% of people expect house prices to rise during the coming six months, predicting average house prices to increases 5.4%, according to property website Zoopla.co.uk.
Categories: uk Recession Tags: 2010, housing market, recovery, uk Recession
uk recession debate
UK Recession debate
Lets not bury our heads in the sand about where the uk recession originated from. It was a global recession that was started by bad moves (call it greed) between governments and bankers. These guys were using our money to play monopoly on a big scale. At the end of the day we will pay heavily for it.
An example quote to pick the bones out of: Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein told the us financial crisis panel that US government support was critical in the crisis. "We benefited from it," he said.
And we in the uk suffered for it.
Greed.
Do you agree?
Categories: uk Recession Tags: bankers, debate, global recession, greed, uk Recession, us financial crisis panel
good news
Good news on the uk recession
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. economy emerged from the worst recession on record in the fourth quarter, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said.
Gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent after shrinking 0.2 percent in the third quarter, the institute, whose clients include the Bank of England and the Treasury, said in an e- mailed statement today in London. The economy shrank 4.8 percent in 2009, more than any year of the Great Depression and the most since 1921, the report said.
Bank of England policy maker Andrew Sentance told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published today that the early months of recovery may “feel fragile and uncertain.” Government data today showed U.K. manufacturing unexpectedly stalled for a second month in November, suggesting the economy is struggling to shake off the slump. Read more...
Categories: Recession headlines Tags: bloomberg, good news, uk economy, uk Recession
tax debt
Tax debt problems
The uk recession and the reverberations the uk recession has had on businesses in the uk has caused some companies problems with tax debt to the hrmc.
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HM RC) has been pretty ruthless in recovering tax arrears from companies that have struggled in the uk recession. The government is behind almost half of all court petitions seeking to push companies into failure, despite repeated calls from ministers for other creditor groups, such as banks, to do everything they can to help struggling businesses keep trading. Read more...
Categories: uk Recession Tags: businesses, hmrc, tax debt, uk Recession
Gordon brown car boot sale
UK Recession prompts massive car boot sale
Like most families that are struggling to make ends meet, Gordon brown has initiated what has been called a massive car boot sale.
Gordon brown hopes to raise 16 billion pounds to help bail the uk economy out of the mire. The money will be raised by selling national assets such as the channel tunnel, the dartford crossing, the tote, and the student loan book.
Gordon browns announcement
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: car boot sale, uk Recession