Business News Articles

IMF: UK economy to grow in 2010
The UK's recession will end this year and the economy will return to growth in 2010, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF has sharply raised its forecast for Britain's economy now predicting a growth of 0.2% next year, as opposed to the decline of 0.4% that it predicted in April. In its report the IMF warned that, "Despite positive signs, the global recess... more

Consumer confidence rising
British consumers are feeling increasingly positive about the state of the UK economy with confidence approaching the same level as last year, according to the Nationwide consumer confidence index. The Nationwide index rose from 54 points in May to 58 points in June - just one point below June 2008's figure of 59. Consumer expectations for the economic situation in six months time were parti... more

Downturn in jobs market easing
Job appointments for permanent positions in the UK declined at the slowest rate for over a year, according to a survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG. Although permanent placements continued to decrease in June, the latest drop was the weakest in thirteen months. The demand for temporary workers also declined at the slowest rate since last September, leading to h... more

Credit card cheques are banned
Banks will no longer be allowed to send out unsolicited credit card cheques or raise credit card limits without the prior written permission of the account holder. The ban is part of the government’s plans for consumer protection to stop inappropriate selling of financial products. According to a survey by Uswitch, 20% of account holders have had their credit card limit increased without t... more

Small firm owners turning to personal loans
Almost a third of small firm owners are prepared to take out a personal loan to finance their business, according to research by investment bank Close Invoice Finance. The survey found that 30% of small business owners would take out a personal loan to help their company and 6% would use their own credit cards to help their firm stay afloat. 20% of respondents revealed that they would approa... more

Worst of recession "is over"
The latest economic survey by the British Chambers Of Commerce (BCC) has claimed that "the worst of the recession is over". The survey of 5,600 businesses shows improvements in manufacturing and sales confidence however there are still issues with cash flow and price pressures. BCC director general David Frost said the survey showed improvement in the business sector but urged the governmen... more

India opens door to British firms
The Indian government are drawing up plans for a huge economic liberalisation plan which could create new opportunities for British companies. Finance secretary Pranab Mukherjee has said that India needs to invite foreign companies, including insurance and engineering firms, to help modernise the economy. His reforms would also overhaul the country's strictly regulated labour market and allo... more

CBI calls for stay at home pay
The CBI has called for the government to introduce an alternative scheme to redundancy as unemployment continues to spiral towards 3m in the UK. In the report, published in association with Siemens, the CBI has suggested that employers who have run out of cash and are unable to pay salaries, would be able to enter employees into a scheme co-funded by the government where workers would stay a... more

Advertising to recover in 2010
A new report by Zenith Optimedia confirms that global advertising is set to recover next year. Zenith, one of the world's largest advertising agencies and part of the Publicis Group, predict that advertising is "set for a mild recovery" in 2010. Advertising expenditure is forecast to fall by 8.5% in 2009. The first quarter has been particularly bad, however the report states that the declin... more

Twitter surges 93%
The number of people visiting social networking site Twitter has increased by 22 fold in the last twelve months, according to internet monitoring company Hitwise. Twitter has now become the fifth most viewed social networking site compared with the 84th last year, with an amazing 93% growth in 2009. Another measure of Twitter's success is its jump in the overall internet rankings ... more