Base Rates

Bank of England:

0.50%

European Central Bank:

1.00%

US Federal Reserve

0.25%

Bank of Japan:

0.30%

Finance House:

1.00%

3 Month LIBOR Rates

£:

0.60094%

€:

0.6725%

US$:

0.2775%

¥:

0.32188%

Exchange Rates

€ per £:

1.1162

US$ per £:

1.6569

¥ per £:

150.58

US$ per €:

1.4845

Interest Rate Swaps

BID

ASK

2 Yr:

2.03

2.07

3 Yr:

2.71

2.75

5 Yr:

3.40

3.45

Commodities

Oil - Brent:

78.89

Gold:

1090.00

World Stock Markets

FTSE 100:

5107.89

FTSE Aim:

651.31

FTSE All-share UK:

2616.08

DAX:

5444.23

Dow Jones:

9802.14

Nikkei:

9844.31

Hang Seng:

21614.77

Consumer Price Indices

CPI Rate:

111.5

CPI %:

1.1%

RPI Rate:

215.3

RPI - Inflation %:

-1.4%

RPIX Rate:

214.5

RPIX - Underlying Inflation %:

1.3%

Labour Market Statistics

Average Earnings Rate:

134.5

Average Earnings %:

1.3%

Unemployment:

5.0%

House Price Indices

Halifax:

535.4

Nationwide:

323.2

DCLG:

165.4

more...

Rate cut on 10.1% of accounts

Over one in ten (10.1%) savings accounts have had their rates reduced in the last seven months, despite the Bank of England's base rate remaining static since March, research conducted by Moneyfacts Group has revealed...

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Platform withdraws from self cert

Platform has announced that it is to withdraw from the self certification market at the end of this week, following the recent Mortgage Review Paper by the Financial Services Authority (FSA)...

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Branches to be 'key battlegrounds'

Following a report that found banking customers found a personal service more important than rates of interest, an industry expert has said that bank branches will become a key battleground for providers...

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Service sector PMI soars

Figures from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) released yesterday found that the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the service sector in the UK climbed for the fourth month in succession...

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Government overcharged Rock £445m

As part of the European Commission's agreement to the state aid bailout package of the Rock, it has been agreed that the government charged a premium rate for the original £27billion lifeline. ..

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Yorkshire's boss fears a harsh future

Eighteen months ago, Iain Cornish predicted the worst of the credit crunch was behind us. ..

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Strong growth in services sector raises questions over Bank's next move

Britain's dominant services sector grew at the fastest pace in more than two years in October, signaling a stronger start to the second quarter than economists had expected...

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Aviva throws its hat into the ring for ING assets

Aviva will consider bidding for some of the €22 billion (£20 billion) in assets being auctioned by ING, the Dutch bank, Andrew Moss, the chief executive of the world's fifth-largest insurer, said yesterday...

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RBS boss Stephen Hester's bonus will be linked to lending performance

Any bonus awarded to Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester will be linked to the Edinburgh-based bank hitting the lending commitments that the Treasury has demanded, it emerged today...

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Lack of inflation prompts US Fed to guarantee long period of low rates

The US Federal Reserve promised it would keep interest rates exceptionally low for an extended period, even though consumer spending has started to recover in the world's largest economy...

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Mixed signals make Bank's decision unusually tricky

Strong evidence of recovery in the service sector emerged yesterday, as the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee prepared to make its announcement, at noon today, about an extension of its quantitative easing strategy of injecting money into the economy...

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Northern Rock Boost Lending

Northern Rock stepped up mortgage lending in the last three months in a move expected to spark an improved second-half performance...

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Treasury lines up $81bn debt sale

The US Treasury said yesterday that it will sell a record $81bn of government debt next week for a quarterly refunding and also introduce a 30-year inflation bond...

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