What the Finance

The World Economic Forum (WEF) conducted its annual survey of all global economies and rated each one based on 12 “Pillars of Competitiveness” covering a number of factors affecting individual economies such as ‘Health & Primary Education’,  ‘Technological Readiness’ and ‘Innovation’. Since the report last year, the UK has moved up from 10th place to […]

Thursday saw the Barclays group announce the appointment of Antony Jenkins to the role vacated by Bob Diamond earlier this summer. Analysts have already begun to question the future of the investment banking arm of the group. Mr Jenkins has been selected during a tumultuous time for Barclays, just several months after the banking group […]

The UK economy shrank by 2.4% in the first quarter of the year in what is now thought to be the biggest contraction since 1958, the Office for National Statistics reported today in London. The median estimate in an earlier Bloomberg survey of about 30 economists was a 2.1% decline. The construction activity fell by […]

HIG Capital is one of the of the leading global private equity companies. The firm’s Head Quarters are based in Miami, USA and they have offices in Boston, New York, Atlanta and San Francisco. The business currently has over $8.5 billion of capital under investment and over 200 portfolio companies. HIG’s funds include private equity, […]

According to Wikipedia, manufacturing production is a wealth-producing sector of an economy, whereas a service sector tends to be wealth-consuming. However, as the recent economic data indicate even the strongest of the world economies undergo the reverse process of de-industrialisation. De-industrialization as a concept can generally be defined as “a decline in the ratio of […]

The situation in the markets is a rather strange one at the moment… everyone is simply repeating pretty much what has been said before but the truth is that nobody really knows will lies ahead. The G20 meeting over the weekend could not be much different and it was bound to let people down as […]

Investors are not expecting a quick recovery in credit markets. A rally is certainly not expected until the end of 2009. All eyes are now on lending standards with the majority of investors (64%) looking for banks to ease lending standards as an indicator of the turn in the economic crisis. A smaller number of […]

The auto industry is showing the first deep scars of a recession from UK to Japan and all around the world. New car sales in the UK dropped by 23% in October, the highest in 17 years according to the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders). It has also cut its forecast for 2008 […]

The three-month dollar LIBOR fell 5 basis points to 4.5 percent today versus 4.55 percent yesterday, according to the British Banker’s Association. Leaders report positively that sentiment seems to be changing… Is it, really? LIBOR is so very popular as it is also the benchmark that sets the interest rate on most loans and mortgages.

The global financial meltdown has forced six central banks to coordinate their efforts to ease the detrimental economic effects of the worst ever global financial collapse by lowering interest rates.