UK

UK dividend growth will disappoint in 2012, undershooting forecasts, investment trust manager Charles Luke has warned.

The British Chambers of Commerce has cut its forecast for UK GDP growth for 2012 and has called for the government to announce a modest fiscal stimulus should public sector borrowing come in under target for 2011/12.

Anthony Nutt and John Hamilton are to step down as co-managers of the £250m Jupiter Distribution fund after a decade of service as the group promotes two rising stars.

Vladimir Putin has claimed a resounding victory in Russia's presidential election, provoking a furious response from opposition activists who alleged the vote was marred by widespread fraud.

George Osborne is preparing to alter plans to strip some middle income families of child benefit ahead of a House of Commons debate on the issue.

Quantitative easing will not lift the UK out of its economic slump, as monetary stimulus in a financial downturn is ‘like stuffing cash into a black hole', said Eden's Leigh Himsworth.

Marlborough's Giles Hargreave has reversed his notoriously bearish stance on equity markets for the first time since 2008, telling investors now is the time to be fully invested.

TECHNOLOGY

British taxpayers have wasted £88.6bn in tax relief over the last decade, and will waste a further £12.6bn in 2012 alone, a new report suggests.

Market participants are expecting interest rates in the UK to remain on hold until late 2014, according to Bank of England policymakers.