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January 20, 2010

Bank of England votes 9-0 to hold rates and stimulus plan

Filed under: OANDA News — Tags: a-short-term, central-bank, currency, december, economy, further-month-, gbp, growth-on-the, hold-interest, monetary-policy, online, showing-signs, signals, stimulus, weakened — admin @ 5:44 am

Bank of England

The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee (MPC) voted unanimously to hold interest rates at 0.5 per cent and keep a lid on its quantitative easing plan, minutes from the January meeting showed today.

All nine members of the committee, which sets the interest rate each month, decided to not to raise the £200 billion programme of quantitative easing, which is aimed at pumping cash into the financial system for a further month.

The MPC said that the signals were mixed but that the economy appeared to be showing signs of weak growth on the back of the stimulus package and the weakened sterling. Policymakers remained of the belief that inflation would again drop below its 2 per cent target after a short term spike.

source: Times Online

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Canada inflation hits 10-month high on gasoline

Filed under: OANDA News — Tags: a-off-track, and-inflation, consumer-price, currency, data, forex round up, gasoline, gasoline-prices, hold-interest, news, november, online — admin @ 5:37 am

Bank of Canada

Higher gasoline prices pushed Canada’s annual inflation rate to a 10-month high in December, but the news is unlikely to knock the Bank of Canada off track in its pledge to hold interest rates steady for some time.

The consumer price index slipped 0.3 percent in December from November, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday. But 12-month inflation was 1.3 percent, the highest since the 1.4 percent rate of February 2009, due largely to the base effect of a steep decline in gasoline prices in December 2008. In November, annual inflation was 1.0 percent.

Still, the data was below market expectations and inflation was in the lower end of the Bank of Canada’s target range of 1 to 3 percent.

Source: Reuters

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December 31, 2009

UK Banks to Boost Mortgages in 2010

Filed under: OANDA News — Tags: become-better, customers, easing-economic, england, forex round up, further-proof, house, online, over-the-past, situation, survey — admin @ 9:07 am

Encouraging words from the UK’s Central Bank that could be further proof of the impact of quantitative easing economic policy.

Bank of England

Banks and other lenders were making more mortgages available to their customers in the final quarter of the year and are expected to further boost their offerings in the new year, the Bank of England said today.

In its latest quarterly Credit Conditions Survey, which asks lenders about credit conditions over the past three months, the Bank reported that respondents had said that the situation had become better because of the improved economic outlook and higher house prices.

Times Online

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Greece and other Economies Still Worry Eurozone

Filed under: OANDA News — Tags: 16-nation-euro, biggest, customers, eur, europe, founding, italy, its-sovereign, online, rescue-or-risk, situation, spain, the-economies, the-founding — admin @ 9:03 am

The countries that were some time ago, success stories of the Euro zone integration are now one of the biggest worries to the founding members as the economies of Portural, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Italy are facing serious challenges and are not able to keep up with France and Germany.

Day by day, fears are growing that Greece or another weak country may default on its sovereign debt obligations, forcing the richer countries in Europe to ride to the rescue or risk having one or more of its most vulnerable members leave the 16-nation euro zone.

Many European economists discount such a fracture as a remote possibility. But that doesn’t mean Europe has safely emerged from crisis.

CNBC

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