Cameron makes appeal to Scots

irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Thursday, February 16, 2012, 15:33

British prime minister David Cameron today appealed to the Scots to reject independence with an offer to devolve more power to Edinburgh.

Scotland's nationalist regional government, which already controls some areas of spending, wants to hold a referendum in late 2014 on full independence that could spell an end to a 300-year-old union with England.

Mr Cameron took his case for keeping the United Kingdom intact to Scotland's capital, arguing in a speech laced with sentimental historical references that Scotland was better off as part of the union.

"The union helps to make Scotland stronger, safer, richer and fairer," he told a business audience, speaking against the backdrop of Edinburgh castle. "Of course, Scotland could govern itself. So could England, but we do it so much better together," he said.

He warned Scotland would face an uncertain economic future alone. "There is for some smaller nations the risk that independence can actually lead to greater dependence," he said.

Mr Cameron later began talks with Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), to work out differences over the timing and content of the referendum Mr Salmond wants to hold on independence.

In his speech, Mr Cameron dangled the carrot that, if Scots rejected full independence, he would be open to looking at what further powers could be devolved from London to Edinburgh, but he did not spell out what they were.

Mr Salmond was sceptical, telling the BBC: "If the prime minister has an offer to make to the people of Scotland then . . . he should spell it out now."Scotland has its own legal system and already has devolved responsibility for domestic matters such as health, education and emergency services.

Mr Cameron's trip to Edinburgh to speak personally to the Scots is a sign of how concerned London is about the referendum. The government will hope the offer of a further devolution of powers to Scotland could convince swing voters of the merits of staying in the union.

Polls suggest between 30 and 40 percent of Scots support independence. The SNP hopes it can increase that by 2014, when national pride may be boosted by the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, a famous victory over the English.

All major British parties want to keep the union intact, but Mr Cameron faces a dilemma over how to handle the pro-union campaign because his Conservative Party is unpopular north of the border, where it has just one member of parliament, and Mr Salmond portrays Mr Cameron's interventions as interference.

Reuters

Bank considered bigger QE stimulus in February - minutes

LONDON | Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:50am GMT

(Reuters) - Two Bank of England policymakers voted for a bigger stimulus to the economy in February than their colleagues could support, minutes to the Bank's February 8-9 meeting showed on Wednesday.

The news is likely to re-open the debate about whether the central bank will add further quantitative easing in May,

especially as the minutes showed that other MPC members saw a case f or doing no further stimulus at all this month.

David Miles joined long-standing dove Adam Posen in voting for a 75 billion pound boost, whereas the remainder of the MPC supported a 50 billion pound increase to 325 billion pounds , in line with market expectations.

Miles and Posen argued there was a risk of a prolonged period of depressed demand causing inflation to fall materially below target in the medium term. Moreover, extra QE now would reduce the risk of a spiral of increasing unemployment and scrapping of capacity by firms.

However, most MPC members thought a bigger increase than 50 billion "risked sending a signal that the Committee thought the economic situation was weaker than it was."

The MPC members who voted for 50 billion more QE were not wholly united.

"For some members ... a case could be made for maintaining the stance of policy at this meeting," the minutes said.

Both 50 billion pounds and 75 billion pounds would be sufficient to bring inflation back to its 2 percent target over the forecast horizon, the minutes said.

In its quarterly projections published last week, the central bank revised up forecasts to show inflation only just below target in two years time, at around 1.8 percent. It s growth forecast was broadly unchanged.

"Growth was likely to be volatile in the near term given the impact of one-off factors," the minutes said, citing an extra public holiday to mark the Queen's Diamo nd Jubilee celebrations.

"Thereafter growth should strengthen gradually, supported by a recovery in households' real income growth and the expansionary stance of monetary policy," the minutes said.

The MPC said there were substantial uncertainties around the path of inflation over the medium term, reiterating the position in the Inflation Report.

Upward risks included disruption to the supply of oil and gas and the risk of upward wage or price-setting behaviour

by companies against a backdrop of weak productivity growth.

"There were also risks to the downside that might result in demand growth being too weak to absorb the pool of spare capacity sufficiently."

Last week Posen said that UK monetary policy and forecasts appeared to be on the right track. And in a speech in Glasgow late on Tuesday, deputy governor Charlie Bean forecast a return to modest growth, albeit after a sluggish first half to 2012.

Iniciado por Malditos_Usureros

Están estudiando bajar los impuestos a empresas (corporate tax y otros).

CBI urges Osborne to focus on growth goals in budget | Reuters

Iniciado por Malditos_Usureros

Cómo se calcula el corporate tax efectivo? Actualmente el corporate tax a secas está en el 20%, cómo llega hasta ese 23.2%?

Iniciado por Malditos_Usureros

Hmm, me rectifico, 20% es para small profits (debajo de 300k), para el resto es 26%, imagino que ese 23.2% sera la media contando con el porcentaje que hay de cada tipo.

Iniciado por Malditos_Usureros

Hmm, me rectifico, 20% es para small profits (debajo de 300k), para el resto es 26%, imagino que ese 23.2% sera la media contando con el porcentaje que hay de cada tipo.

10:31:42 h. Datos de Reino Unido Serenity markets

PIB del cuarto trimestre en segunda lectura queda sin cambios, con bajada del -0,2% pero el problema está en la interanual que queda en +0,7% cuando se esperaba +0,8%.

Britain 'may avoid recession'

irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Friday, February 24, 2012, 12:13

An upsurge in exports offered the British economy a solid base to bounce back from a fourth quarter dip.

Britain's economy may avoid another recession after a rise in consumer spending and an upsurge in exports offered it a solid base to bounce back from a fourth quarter dip, but a vigorous return to health is unlikely.

The Office for National Statistics confirmed its earlier estimate that the economy shrank by 0.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2011, largely due to a slump in investment at a time when the turmoil in the euro zone was at its most disruptive.

But the strong consumption and export performance chime with recent business surveys indicating a pick-up in activity at the start of 2012.

High unemployment and the overall meagre recovery from a 2008-2009 slump are keeping pressure on finance minister George Osborne to find ways to boost growth without wavering on his plans to erase the country's huge budget deficit.

With substantial cuts to public spending still to come and a Britain's main export market, the euro zone, headed into recession, the Bank of England may still need to inject further cash into the economy in the months ahead.

"We now expect a positive GDP outturn for Q1 given the upturn in many of the indicators which we've seen recently," said Investec economist Philip Shaw.

"The uncertainties remain, and when economies recover from financial crises, they don't recover in a straight line, and certainly the (Bank of England's) central GDP forecast for 2013 does look punchy."

The ONS adjusted annual growth in the fourth quarter to 0.7 per cent- a slight downward revision which briefly pushed the pound lower against the dollar.

Consumer spending rose by 0.5 per cent on the quarter - the first quarterly increase in 1.5 years - while exports jumped 2.3 per cent, the ONS said.

But gross fixed capital formation dropped by 2.8 per cent, with business investment falling 5.6 per cent on the quarter, and slower inventory building also dragging on growth.

"The relative strength of growth (in household spending) in the fourth quarter may reflect some demand which had not been exercised in the previous five quarters," the ONS said.

The ONS said the dominant services sector stagnated at the end of last year as manufacturers and construction firms cut back production. Separate data showed that services output grew by 0.2 per cent on the month in December.

The strong rise in exports at the end of 2011 - coming after two quarters of falling sales abroad - was mainly driven by exports to non-European Union countries, the ONS said.

The German economy also contracted in the final quarter of 2011 and, despite some encouraging surveys and agreement on a bailout for Greece, the euro zone is still teetering on the brink of recession.

Reuters