Finance Blog

If not this month, then maybe next? It would indeed have been amazing if the Bank of England had determined to raise interest rates today. After what Mervyn King, the Governor, said in a speech a couple of weeks back, where he asked us to "look through" current, elevated levels of inflation to the supposed… Read more

Ah, the Telegraph finance blog. Just the place for a post on the most pressing media issue of the moment: why haven't ITV fired nasty judge Jason Gardiner from Dancing on Ice? I have written about this before. That was in January last year, when Gardiner said of celebrity participant Sharron Davies – who had skated in… Read more

Millions of women will have to pay substantially more for life assurance if, as expected, the European Court rules next month against premiums being based on claims experience. Coverage of the case to date has focussed on how women are likely to pay less for motor cover and may obtain higher pension income if insurers are… Read more

When Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays, appeared before the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee a few weeks back, he suggested it was time to move on and put the banking crisis behind us. Presumably, he spoke more in hope than expectation, for judging by this morning's news, banking remains as much of a… Read more

Early signs of recovery in the housing market today helped property minnow St Modwen to  follow oil giant BP’s lead of last week by restoring its dividend for the first time since November, 2007. These income payments to shareholders have delivered nearly half the total returns from equities over the last 20 years. But, as… Read more

Phew! Services rebounded strongly in January, according to the latest purchasing managers' survey from Markit/CIPS. That ought to mean the UK economy is not heading for a double dip after all, at least for the time being. The rebound shouldn't have been so surprising after the largely weather induced negative of December, but you'd be amazed… Read more

In case you haven't heard, Craig Oliver, a senior executive at BBC Global News, has just been appointed director of communications at No10 Downing Street – replacing Andy Coulson. And in case you care, here's the note he's just sent to colleagues at the BBC: Dear Colleagues, As you will have seen from Peter's email, I have… Read more

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French presidential hopeful who has been taking a sabbatical these past few years as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, normally talks sense (OK, so only occassionally), but is he not being a trifle alarmist in warning that global imbalances if left unaddressed could end in war? Here's the relevant bit from… Read more

As expected, BP announced it will resume paying dividends – albeit at half their previous level – today. But the giant oil company’s share price slipped lower, surprising investors who had hoped renewed income payments would revive the share price. Why? One explanation might be that despite analysts’ optimistic forecasts that the costs of the Gulf… Read more

About 175,000 people earning £40,000 a year will see their marginal rate of tax more than double from 30 per cent to 70 per cent from April 6 because of complex changes to the tax system, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). At the same time, a reduction in the point at which higher… Read more