HSBC FX accounts offer succour to Brits afraid of Brexit, Corbyn
Businessam Staff
August 9, 2017
HSBC Holdings Plc isn’t plastering Heathrow with its “world’s local bank” tagline anymore, but a Brexit-battered pound and a political swing to the left have spurred internationally minded Brits to snap up its foreign-currency accounts. Demand for HSBC Currency Accounts, which let customers hold cash in foreign currencies in the U.K., spiked 23 percent in […]
Wealth tax under attack as Scandinavians prepare to vote
Businessam StaffAugust 9, 2017
Taxing the rich has become a political hot potato ahead of Norway’s election next month. On Tuesday, according to Bloomberg, the country’s biggest business group weighed in, saying the opposition Labor Party’s plan to raise the wealth tax by 5 billion kroner ($633 million) over the next four years could harm job creation. It even […]
‘Why would you want to live in Britain?’: UK businesses fret over finding workers post-Brexit
Businessam StaffAugust 4, 2017
Since Britain voted to leave the European Union over a year ago, millions of EU citizens living in the U.K. and over a million British expats in other EU states have been living in a prolonged state of insecurity about their future. Ali Capper, who runs a 200-year-old fruit and hops farm with her husband Richard, told […]
Western firms tap Russian frontier oil as sanctions gap creates access
Businessam StaffAugust 2, 2017
A gap in U.S. sanctions allows Western companies to help Russia develop some of its most technically challenging oil reserves, and risks undermining the broad aim of the measures, a Reuters review of company results and media releases have found. When Washington imposed the sanctions on Moscow in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea and […]
Hot and cold: Euro zone grows but inflation slows
Businessam StaffJuly 31, 2017
Data in the coming week should confirm the euro zone economy is running hot, after the IMF upgraded growth forecasts and Greece returned to the debt market, although inflation figures could throw cold water on ECB plans to start tightening policy, according to Reuters’ report. Growth in the single currency area outstripped paltry expansion in […]
Brexit economy: sterling fall hits public finances and fails to boost trade
Businessam StaffJuly 24, 2017
The sharp fall in sterling triggered by the EU referendum result is having an adverse effect on Britain’s already weak public finances but has yet to bring about the expected improvement in the trade deficit, a Guardian analysis of the economic news of the past month shows. In a period in which business confidence took […]
English shoppers shun plastic bag after 5 pence levy imposed
Businessam StaffJuly 21, 2017
The number of plastic carrier bags handed out by large stores in England fell by 83 percent since they started charging a levy for their use, government data showed on Friday. The average shopper in England now takes home about 25 bags a year from the main supermarkets, compared with about 140 bags before the […]
ECB’s Draghi expected to remain cagey on stimulus exit plans
Businessam StaffJuly 20, 2017
European Central Bank head Mario Draghi will face questions later Thursday about when and how the bank might withdraw its stimulus measures. Draghi is not expected to give much away at his news conference following the meeting of the bank’s 25-member governing council, at which no changes in the stimulus are expected. That’s out of […]
Brexit’s effect on UK ‘will be profound and unpredictable’, – Lords committee
Businessam StaffJuly 19, 2017
Brexit poses a fundamental challenge to the future of the United Kingdom by removing the European Union law that has helped to bind it together, a committee of lawmakers from the British parliament’s upper house said on Wednesday. Last year’s vote to leave the EU has highlighted tensions among the United Kingdom’s four constituent nations: […]
Tepid Eurozone inflation raises questions over European Central Bank tightening
Businessam StaffJuly 17, 2017
Eurozone inflation fell in June, the European Commission today confirmed, easing pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to start tightening monetary policy at its next announcement on Thursday. Consumer prices rose just 1.3 per cent in June, down from 1.4 per cent in May. Meanwhile, core inflation, which strips out the effects of volatile […]