Faisal Islam
Bad news for Osborne as Britain is put on negative outlook
A second ratings agency has effectively lowered their assessment of Britain’s creditworthiness, just days before an important Budget.
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Bank of England holds steady in face of eurozone crisis
Why has the Bank of England decided against printing more money despite a recession in Britain, an intensification of the eurocrisis and advice from the IMF that now is the time to act?
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Eurozone crisis: how safe are Britain’s banks?
With fears that Spain’s banks may need to be bailed out, Channel 4 News looks at the state of the banking sector in Britain.
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UK should ease austerity to boost growth, says IMF
Britain should cut interest rates and consider quantitative easing to stimulate growth, the IMF says, on the back of reports showing 3 per cent inflation and predicting the recession is almost over.
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Bank failed over credit crunch says King
Sir Mervyn King has urged the Government not to delay reforming the financial sector and admitted more should have been done to avert the banking crisis.
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Budget 2012: Do small firms want a cut in 50p rate?
Ahead of George Osborne’s budget statement, Business Correspondent Sarah Smith takes a look at what the hotly-debated cut in the 50p tax rate will actually mean for small businesses.
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UK inflation falls to 3.4 per cent
Lower electricity and gas bills help drive down the overall rate of inflation to a 15-month low with the consumer prices index (CPI) rate dipping to 3.4 per cent.
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Gary Gibbon
Cameron talks humble pie on Scottish independence
At David Cameron’s speech in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. Anti-cuts protestors chants waft by from the street. But up here on the 5th floor of an Edinburgh hotel David Cameron is, he says, speaking in a spirit of “humble pie.”
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Faisal Islam
UK economy likely to ‘zig-zag’ predicts Mervyn King
The Governor of the Bank of England today predicted further quarters of negative GDP growth this year following the latest -0.2% slump recorded in the last quarter of last year. Britain’s economy is likely to “zig-zag” between positive and negative growth said the Governor, introducing the Bank’s quarterly economic healthcheck. Sir Mervyn said that the…
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Gary Gibbon
Mervyn King will weigh in on Scottish independence – but not yet
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King remains tight lipped over the prospect of becoming the lender of last resort to an independent Scotland.
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Britain will avoid recession – CBI
The CBI employers’ body says Britain will avoid recession but other forecasters are less opimistic, with one economist telling Channel 4 News that “the economy is going nowhere”.
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Faisal Islam
Three years on, is quantitative easing the way forward?
It’s not just savers who can no longer live off paltry savings income. The retirement annuity industry has been hit by a fall of 20-30% in the annual income that pensioners will be obliged to live off for the rest of their lives.
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Why your pension may be smaller than you think
Twenty years ago a £100,000 annuity pot would give a £15,000 income. Nowadays it would give barely a third of that. Neil MacDonald explains why quantitative easing is pushing down retirement incomes.
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‘Hester is relatively low-paid banker’ – Hampton
Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir Philip Hampton tells Channel 4 News RBS boss Stephen Hester is “low paid” compared to others in the banking sector, but admits pay generally is “very high”.
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Goodwin stripped of knighthood
Former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Fred “the shred” Goodwin loses his knighthood in a “very political strip show”, as Channel 4 News Political Editor Gary Gibbon reports.
