UK Business News

Factory gate prices jump ahead

Rising oil prices prompt raw materials costs for British factories to rise at fastest annual pace in a year

Gilts fall over fears for public debt outlook

Investor sentiment turns sour amid mounting concern that Britain’s AAA credit rating faces being downgraded

• Rough Budget causes morning-after gilt trip

• Little to ease doubts on triple-A credit rating

NS&I pulls popular fixed-rate bonds

State's savings institution withdraws last of its fixed-rate bond deals less than two months after their introduction

• NS&I pulls leading bonds after rivals cry foul

• Fixed-rate bonds bonanza for savers

Royal Mail to report record pension deficit

Adam Crozier says deficit likely to be £10 billion, a figure described by the Communications Workers Union as ‘daunting’

World Business News

US retail sales boom in November

Rise at nearly double the rate expected by economists gives a welcome boost to the fragile economic recovery

Bonanza for Indian matriarch in £1.3bn float

Jindal Power, the power company controlled by Savitri Jindal, seeks approval for India's largest share listing in two years

• Barclays falls foul of Indian regulator

• India's Bajaj scraps Vespa-inspired scooters

Goldman grandees forgo cash for paper bonuses

Lloyd Blankfein and 29 executives will receive their chunk of estimated $22 billion bonus pool in shares

• Tax on bankers’ bonus ‘would infringe human rights’

• EU nations get behind super-tax on bonuses

Lawrence quits Unilever finance job: ‘No split’

Chief financial officer who lost out in race for the chief executive's job decides that his future now lies elsewhere

Analysis

Rough Budget causes morning-after gilt trip

The markets decided that, whatever the political considerations, the Chancellor jolly well should have done something

We need bankers more than they need us

The Government’s war on the financial industry will cost Britain dearly in jobs and tax, and picks on the wrong target

Tempus: Self-help steps boost Premier Farnell

Measures instituted by the chief executive just over two years ago have helped the electronic components distributor

Law  

Two-year jail sentence for insider trader

Matthew Uberboi given one-year sentence for passing secret information on shares to father, Neel, who gets two years

HSBC whistleblower sparks Paris-Berne tussle

Swiss authorities launch inquiry after allegations that a former bank employee gave stolen data to French tax authorities

• French quake as Swiss yield on bank secrecy

• Sarkozy tax havens attack blunted by allegations

Dubai’s golden sands lose their lustre

Investors trapped by the financial storm in the Middle East are in unknown legal territory as they try to protect their billions

Money  

Rise in mortgages hides ‘two-speed market’

Low interest rates are encouraging those with large deposits to invest, but are also holding back the remortgage market

• October mortgage lending rises 5 per cent

• Mortgage and housebuilding figures offer hope

Q&A: what the PBR means for you

Who is being forced to pay? What will the PBR mean for housing market? Is there good news for my family?

• Analysis: PBR was a holding operation

• PBR - bank supertax and public sector pay cap

Fresh delay for Personal Accounts

Chancellor extends roll-out period for Government's pensions flagship

business travel  

Profile: Leisure boss John Morphet

The man who runs the estate where Freddie Flintoff and Wayne Rooney have homes shares his views on business travel

International rail compensation brought into line with air travel

New rules mean cross-border train passengers will get more in the event of delay or cancellation

Rail nightmare for Gatwick and Luton

Industrial action and service restrictions from the £5.5bn Thameslink programme are causing headaches