Economics

Outsourcing giant Capita has made no further provision for Arch cru liabilities in its latest set of results.

The UK economy never experienced a 'double-dip' recession, if offshore oil figures are stripped out of the data, said Henderson Global Investors' economist Simon Ward.

UK GDP contracted 0.3% in the last quarter of 2012, according the second reading of the data.

Europe's leading equity markets took a beating yesterday as elections in Italy resulted in political deadlock.

The Bank of England's deputy governor Paul Tucker has raised the prospect of introducing negative interest rates to boost lending and support the UK economy.

The UK should still be a AAA credit by current definitions as the risk of a default is virtually non-existent, Henderson's Simon Ward has said.

Moody's has cut its rating on the guaranteed debt of Barclays and Lloyds following the downgrade of the UK's credit rating last week.

Yields on UK government debt were climbing early this morning following Moody's decision to downgrade the UK's credit rating to Aa1, but equity investors shrugged off the news to send markets higher.

Moody's decision to strip the UK of its AAA credit rating on Friday night will have a further negative impact on sterling and could hit gilts too, analysts have suggested.

Moody's has stripped the UK of its AAA credit rating on fears over rising government debt and years of slow economic growth ahead.