Economics

ECONOMICS

Italy sold €5.95bn worth of bonds today after Standard & Poor's downgrade of Spain reignited fears over the health of European peripheral economies.

US GDP for the first quarter of 2012 rose 2.2%, undershooting analysts' forecasts.

VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE

Illusive trader Alan Howard has been ranked the wealthiest hedge fund manager as part of the Sunday Times Rich List, after his fund managed to outperform through the eurozone crisis last year.

RBS has revised its Bank of England forecasts, scrapping its prediction of further QE and forecasting an initial hike in UK interest rates in the second quarter of next year.

Ticketus, the company backed by the Octopus Protected EIS scheme, has withdrawn from discussions with Blue Knights Consortium over a takeover of Glasgow Rangers FC.

UK ECONOMY

Franklin Templeton Investments' Michael Hasenstab has boosted exposure to Hungary in the $60bn Templeton Global Bond fund, meaning the overall company is likely to hold more than 10% of the country's government debt.

Japan's central bank has further eased monetary policy by expanding its asset purchasing programme from 65trn to 70trn yen and buying riskier assets including ETFs.