Businesses optimistic despite clouds on horizon

here seems to be a sense of optimism in the air for the business community. The amount of activity in the Scottish economy seems to be growing. Exporters report their confidence “leapt” in July. It may a false dawn. After all, there is a Government spending review under way. But the latest surveys don’t reflect [...]

Opinion: Small businesses key to job creation

strong>By Colin Borland, Federation of Small Businesses
It’s too early to tell if the Westminster government’s strategy of cutting the deficit now to stimulate a private sector led recovery is going to pay off.
Experts are understandably wary about reading too much into the initial signs. The latest UK GDP figures were surprisingly positive, but economists [...]

BP needs to change course not just its captain

By: John Knox
It takes time to change the direction of an oil tanker. But the order to alter course was given from the bridge of BP some time ago and nothing seems to have happened. It was supposed to be moving “Beyond Petroleum.” The new captain must now make sure that it does.
Most people – [...]

Interview with Iain MacMillan on CBI industry survey

CBI Scotland has just published its quarterly Industrial Trends Survey. It shows that output has continued to grow slowly but steadily over the past 12 months. That’s expected to continue for the rest of the year. Exports in particular were up on the previous quarter but demand at home was fairly static. Employment went [...]

Conflicting messages about Scottish economy

Last week saw conflicting economic news about the Scottish economy. There was the report last week from the Fraser of Allander Institute, claiming that Scotland’s growth and employment is expected to lag behind the rest of the UK because of the spending cuts announced by the government last month.
It believes that Scotland could lose [...]

Scottish business confidence ‘highest in UK’

here are growing signs that business confidence is returning to Scotland. A survey from the Clydesdale Bank suggests that it’s currently the highest in the UK. It comes the day after the Scottish Government released figures show the third successive quarter of growth for exports.
The bank’s business confidence survey found that more than half (56 [...]

VAT up to 20% and public sector pay freezes in Budget

Read the full text of George Osborne’s Budget speech.

In a Budget speech lasting just under an hour, Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled a package of tax increases and budget cuts designed to make the UK “balance its books” by 2016.
He said he would “not hide hard choices from the British People”. 77 per cent of [...]

All sectors wait in trepidation for Osborne’s Budget

Yesterday may have been the longest day – and it must surely have felt like it to those waiting for the Chancellor to deliver his Budget. Hikes in VAT and Capital Gains Tax? New green taxes levied on air travel? A new “bank tax” introduced? Swingeing cuts in the public sector? And on the [...]

Long shadow of family stress cast by recession

The recession may technically be over, confirmed by figures published this morning by the OECD; but its effects will be felt for a long time to come. No-one yet knows the future shape of the economy so a cloud that hangs over virtually all small businesses. It’s also having a long-term impact not just on [...]

Scottish engineering orders ‘healthiest for three years’

he quarterly review of Scotland’s engineering sector show that the volume of orders for the three months to June in are at the healthiest for almost three years. According to Scottish Engineering, the improvements recorded in the previous two quarters have continued, with increases almost across the board.
Fewer than a quarter of the companies [...]

No recession for people with time and money on their hands

By any measure, it is an expensive way to buy time. A second-hand watch was sold for more than £3 million at an auction in Geneva this week.
The Swiss-made Patek Philippe, however, is unlikely to end up on anyone’s wrist. The buyer’s identity was not revealed but, according to Christie’s, it was purchased on behalf [...]

Doubts cast on success of EU’s rescue deal

By Andrew McLeod
Markets slipped back today after Sunday night’s 750 billion euro rescue package for Greece and other troubled European economies, with some economists sceptical the European Union measures, which boosted share prices yesterday, will work in the long-term.
According to Peter Morici, a former chief economist at the US International Trade Commission and now at [...]

Euro bounces back after £430bn crisis deal

collective sigh can metaphorically be heard from finance ministries and banks in the more economically challenged European countries today. The 16 members of the Euro Zone have reached agreement on a emergency finance package worth a staggering €500bn (£430bn) to prevent the Greek debt crisis from spreading.
The talks ran on until, symbolically, the [...]

Measures unveiled to help cut fuel poverty

It’s an election issue in large swathes of the UK – in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales in particular. Fuel poverty is a worry for millions of vulnerable people.
This week, we’ve already seen the launch of an advertising campaign in Edinburgh to encourage people to become more energy efficient and help them cut their [...]

Analysis: what to make of disappointing growth figures

The release today of the latest growth figures for the UK will make disappointing reading for the Government. The economy grew by only 0.2% in the first three months of the year, about half of what the market had expected. Even so, it confirms that the country is continuing to move slowly out [...]

Airports open as ash restrictions lifted

By Allan Laing
Britain’s airports should begin the long journey back to normality this morning following the lifting of flight restrictions by the government.
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis announced that all UK airports could re-open from 2200 tonight. The unexpected move came after consultation with the Civil Aviation Authority and a general reassessment of the risk to [...]

Yet more volcanic ash dashes travels hopes

By Allan Laing
It was a sight for sore eyes. At 8.05 this morning the sound – and the faint vapour trail – of a solitary airplane was spotted in the clear blue skies above Glasgow.
People who, under normal circumstances, would barely notice its presence gazed upwards to catch a rare glimpse of a commercial aircraft [...]

McFall bows out with call for radical reform of financial system

n what will be his last blast at the UK’s financial institutions, John McFall’s Treasury Select Committee today publishes a report on the firms which are considered “Too Important to Fail”. These are firms so integral to the financial system that, during the banking crisis, governments had to bail them out.
As committee [...]

Mixed reaction to a ‘holding’ Budget

Read our full Budget coverage
oday’s Budget was very much a case of the bad news followed by a few sweeteners. The bad news reflected the state of the economy, which contracted by 6% during the recession. Some signs of recovery however are there. The Chancellor’s estimate for growth of just over 1% [...]

What can we expect from the Phoney Budget?

long time ago (in what now feels like a land far away), I studied economics. I learned that, despite the use of formulae which looked like algebra, it was a far from exact science. In fact, it isn’t a science at all. There’s a saying that economics was invented to make [...]

Opinion: Economy in Wonderland as the country goes to pot

By John Knox
ot since Alice sat down at the Mad Hatter’s tea party has there been such a crazy week. I’ve felt like the Dormouse, waking up occasionally and finding myself sitting between the Mad Hatter and the March Hare as they carry on a conversation of non sequiturs. It’s been as mad [...]

The problem with Scottish business, Part 93

One of the most depressing things about newspapers is the way so much of what passes for ‘news’ is simply rewritten press releases. With ever declining staff levels journalists have little time to do anything else. The space has to be filled.
The aim of the Caledonian Mercury is different. We see a [...]

High frequency trading – a threat to global economic stability or an opportunity for Scotland?

ow under scrutiny from London’s Financial Services Agency, the European Commission and Wall Street watchdog the US Securities and Exchange Commission, high frequency trading (HFT) sounds pretty scary. It’s commonly portrayed as the potential locomotive of the next world financial crisis.
HFT means using statistical models developed by some of the world’s best mathematicians on [...]