Economics

Royal Bank of Scotland has blamed the European crisis and PPI claims for £1.4bn losses in the first half of 2011.

M&G, the asset management arm of insurer Prudential, saw profits rise 39% in the first half of 2011 despite a sharp decline in inflows.

The FTSE dropped more than 3% in early trading on Friday, following US and Asian markets sharply lower as the global sell-off continues.

Jupiter's Guy de Blonay has called for European authorities to take further action in supporting markets or the sovereign debt crisis will spread to other eurozone economies.

Sharp falls in bank and mining stocks have dragged the FTSE 100 down a further 3.4% today as global markets continued to struggle.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has voted to hold interest rates and will boost liquidity in the eurozone in an attempt to prevent the sovereign debt crisis from spreading to Italy and Spain.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has left interest rates on hold at 0.5%.

Banking and asset management giant Investec has confirmed it has made an offer for Williams de Broe owner Evolution Group.

A majority of leading economists polled by the BBC expect interest rates to remain unchanged until next year.

US markets yesterday managed to recover some of their losses from the previous seven days as better than expected jobs data boosted sentiment.