A penthouse at a luxury apartment block in London is sold for a British record of £140m. Is this more evidence of an unwelcome housing bubble?
This is George Osborne’s big chance. It is the first time he will hold up the budget box at a time of a robustly growing economy. It has been a four-year wait for this pleasure.
On any measure, having to abandon your much-hyped new policy innovation after just six months, is embarrassing – the rock star central banker seems out of tune.
Gary Gibbon
Mr Osborne has suddenly gone a lot further than he did as recently as last April when he said of a sterling currency union; “frankly it’s unlikely.” Now he is completely ruling it out, what changed?
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney ditches his flagship interest rates policy, but says the cost of borrowing is unlikely to rise in the near future despite falling unemployment.
Mark Carney diplomatically warns Scotland that independence could come at a heavy price – like the ones paid by Ireland, Iceland, Cyprus and Spain.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney says an independent Scotland would have to cede some of its national sovereignty if it wants to keep the pound.
For the first time the Bank of England allows the £1m and £100m bank notes, which underpin the Scottish banking system, to be filmed. Economics Editor Faisal Islam gets his hands on them.
If you believe that the government’s policies contributed to further imbalances, it might appear a little cheeky to argue: “Vote for me and I will rebalance the economy I further imbalanced.”
After years of lacklustre growth, the recovery appears to be taking off at last. Good news for Chancellor George Osborne, but even he is not celebrating yet.
Davos Man is trying to put behind him some six years of financial fear. Doom Davos and Deleveraging Davos have been replaced by Dealmaking Davos. The dust is settling.
Unemployment falls by 167,000 to reach a five-year low of 2.32 million. The jobless rate is now 7.1 per cent, just above the level that could trigger an interest rate rise.
Consumer groups will be given a greater role in identifying and fixing “broken markets” under plans set out by Ed Miliband for a shake-up of the way competition across the business world is regulated.
Consumer prices inflation drops to 2 per cent for the first time in over four years, in line with the government’s target. But Labour says the “cost-of-living crisis” has not gone away.
Two people in their 20s plead guilty to sending “menacing” tweets to Caroline Criado-Perez, who campaigned successfully to get a woman’s image on British banknotes.