Credit, collections & insolvency news
The Bank of England has announced that it has held interest rates at 5.25%, pressing pause on rate hikes after rising relentlessly since December 2021, ending a fourteen-meeting run of rate rises. The.MPC voted 5 to 4 in favour of holding rates steady, with four members preferring a 0.25% rise to 5.5%. Commenting on the…
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Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that prices rose less than expected in August. The annual rate of inflation fell to 6.7% last month, much lower than the rise from 6.8% in July to 7% economists had expected. Core inflation, excluding food, energy, alcohol and tobacco, stood at 6.2% in August, down…
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Bluestone Group has announced that it has agreed terms for the sale of its Irish motor finance operations, Bluestone Motor Finance Ireland (BMFI) to Close Brothers Limited. BMFI was established as a lending platform in 2014, after a period of several years managing acquired portfolios of assets in the Republic of Ireland. After its launch,…
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HSBC and Nova Credit have agreed on a new partnership which will enable newcomers to the UK to leverage their international credit history instantly and free of charge when applying for a credit card. New and existing customers applying for an HSBC UK credit card online can choose to share their credit history from a growing list…
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With the latest labour market statistics, showing a 0.5 percentage point quarterly rise in unemployment in the three months to July, the Institute of Directors is calling on the Bank of England to stop raising interest rates. Kitty Ussher, Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors, said “With today’s data showing a weakening labour market,…
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New research from Bibby Financial Services (BFS) has found that small and medium sized (SME) manufacturing businesses across the globe are being significantly impacted by current economic conditions. Four in ten (40%) manufacturers surveyed across nine key international markets agree that global business conditions are worse now than during the pandemic, and over a quarter…
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Three in four brokers (75%) expect the Government to miss its target of halving inflation and expect inflation to remain above 5% at the end of the year according to research by iwoca. While inflation fell to 6.8% in July, core inflation remained flat at 6.9% and projections suggest August could see rates rise again.…
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August’s flash composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) has indicated a fall in private sector activity, ending a run of six successive months of expansion. In practice, the EY ITEM Club doesn’t think the economy is quite as weak as the PMI suggests, although a continuation of the sluggish growth of recent quarters is likely for…
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Latest GDP figures have shown that the economy grew 0.5% in June and 0.2% between April to June. The struggling manufacturing sector experienced a modest rebound in the second quarter and with the economy benefitted from the effects of May’s extra bank holiday. The Bank of England said last week that it expected annual growth…
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The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the country is on course to experience five years of lost economic growth. The reports says that the triple shocks of Brexit, Covid and the war in Ukraine had all contributed to the dire forecast. NIESR says that despite continuing to expect the UK to…
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Business confidence is at lower than the pre-pandemic average as concerns about high inflation, record wage pressures and rising interest rates bite according to reaearch by ICAEW. Sentiment tracked by ICAEW’s Business Confidence Monitor (BCM) – one of the largest and most comprehensive quarterly surveys of UK business activity – put confidence at 6.1 on…
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The UK Small Business Index (SBI) from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has shown that business confidence has fallen by 14.2 points in Q1 2023, down 11.4 points from Q1 2023. The decline reflects the downbeat economic conditions small businesses had to navigate over the quarter, with stickier-than-expected inflation, while two base rate hikes…
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The UK is facing a prolonged economic slump caused by higher interest rates, economists have warned. EY Item Club has cut its growth forecast for 2024 and 2025. The group said the economy is set to grow by 0.8% next year, less than half its previous prediction of 1.9%. GDP growth will rise to 1.7%…
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