Forex / World news

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - A leading UK think-tank warned that UK interest rates may not have peaked in this rate hiking cycle and that even 6 pct may not be the highest."Sadly for homeowners and borrowers today's announcement may not mark the peak for UK interest rates," Ernst&Young's ITEM Club chief economic advisor Peter Spencer said...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - RBS has upgraded its interest rate forecast to 6.00 pct after the Bank of England delivered an expected quarter point hike to 5.75 pct today."Although we believe rates are close to their peak, the balance of risks suggests a further increase is more likely than not," it said...

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - The European Central Bank said it decided to leave its leading interest rates unchanged at today's governing council meeting.The decision was fully expected by financial markets. The ECB raised rates at its last monetary policy meeting on June 6 and it has never moved rates at two consecutive meetings...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The UK's biggest business lobby warned the Bank of England against a rate hike "overkill".The comments came after the central bank hiked its key rate by a quarter point to 5.75 pct, the highest level since April 2001. The latest increase is also the fifth since August last year...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The number of UK medium to large sized businesses anticipating higher selling prices over the next year is at its highest level for more than 10 years, a survey reported.New research from business and financial advisers Grant Thornton revealed 35 pct of businesses expect higher selling prices, up from 26 pct in 2006, which it said reflects the increasing inflationary pressures within the UK...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russia's outlays on hosting the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi will be repaid in resulting revenues within ten years, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref was quoted as saying today.Sochi was awarded the games in a decision in Guatemala late yesterday...

LISBON (Thomson Financial) - The European Union and Brazil signed a "strategic partnership" agreement yesterday to develop their relations in all areas and to deepen their political dialogue, at their first summit held in Lisbon.Presiding at the conference were Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates who is the current EU Commission president, EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, EU foreign affairs commissioner Javier Solana, as well as Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, who will take over the EU presidency from Jan 1, 2008, and EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Britain's former deputy prime minister John Prescott was on Wednesday given a new job in Europe by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown.Brown confirmed the Labour Party's Prescott, who stood down at the same time as Tony Blair on June 27, had been made a full representative of the British delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK retailers may already be showing signs of fatigue in the second quarter of the year, judging by the number of unfavourable trading statements, according to a Grant Thornton survey.A review of all the retail trading statements issued on the London Stock Exchange during Q2 revealed that the number of positive trading statements issued plummeted to lows not seen for nearly two years...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russian First Deputy Minister Sergei Ivanov said Moscow could deploy rocket units in the Kaliningrad exclave near Poland if Washington goes ahead with its missile defence plans in Central Europe.tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson...

MOSCOW Thomson Financial - Russian gas giant Gazprom and pipeline monopoly Transneft will be given the right to set up armed security forces under a bill passed by Russian lawmakers.The bill allows the two state-controlled companies to use guns and anti-riot equipment such as tear gas to prevent attacks on pipelines and other installations "necessary for state contracts...

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski reiterated that an upcoming EU conference must set down rules allowing a minority of member states to put a brake on bloc-wide decisions for two years.Poland has repeatedly expressed concerns that a text adopted after a marathon EU meeting in Brussels last month on a new reform treaty only referred to "a reasonable delay"...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown has proposed sweeping changes to the way Britain is governed, including moves towards a written constitution and changing the way it decides on going to war.In his first statement to parliament, Brown made a series of recommendations to rebuild trust in government, power to parliament and engagement in the democratic process with proposals to transfer power from the prime minister and the executive to parliament on a range of issues...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - New Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said he wants to cut pre-release access to all national statistics to 24 hours as part of the government's constitutional reform proposals.In a written statement, Darling said this would be a change from the current rules where non-market sensitive statistics can be pre-released up to five days in advance and market sensitive 40...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - A leading UK private equity boss claims the industry is at the top of the market and is likely to face a crisis similar to that seen in the US subprime market.Appearing before the influential Treasury Select Committee, Jon Moulton, managing partner of Alchemy, said the US subprime market is a very good "prototype" for the private equity industry as it is financed in the same way...

TEHRAN Thomson Financial - Iran admitted that international sanctions imposed over its controversial nuclear programme were harming its ability to invest in oil infrastructure."The problems that they have made for banks have troubled financing of some projects," Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh told the official IRNA news agency...

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - The EU's Portuguese presidency, which launched its six-month term yesterday, already faces showdowns with France over budgetary policy and with Poland over a new treaty for the bloc.Both Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates and his finance minister, Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, have lost no time in warning France over its intention to delay until 2012 its 2010 deadline for budget break-even...

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates, whose country took over the EU presidency yesterday dismissed as "a misunderstanding" Poland's threat to reopen debate on the EU treaty deal agreed at a marathon summit 10 days ago...

ANKARA (Thomson Financial) - Turkey's economy grew by 6.7 pct in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the same period last year, the Turkish Statistics Institute said Monday.The figure shows the change in gross national product over the period, the preferred measure of Turkish economic growth, which includes the output of millions of Turkish workers abroad...

HONG KONG (Thomson Financial) - Hong Kong celebrated today 10 years under Chinese rule with pomp and circumstance, but tens of thousands of pro-democracy campaigners also gathered to call for sweeping political reform.Hong Kong's chief executive, Donald Tsang and his new cabinet were sworn in before Chinese President Hu Jintao at the start of a day jam-packed with events to mark the anniversary of the handover of what had up July 1, 1997 been a colony of the UK...