Most Asian stocks dropped, with the regional benchmark index set for its longest streak of weekly losses in two years, after reports showed the U.S. economy grew at a slower rate than forecast and jobless claims unexpectedly rose, reducing the earnings outlook for Asian exporters.
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Asian stocks advanced, paring the regional benchmark index’s third consecutive weekly decline, as exporters gained after reports showed U.S. jobless claims fell even as manufacturing growth slowed.
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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – British households have lost about $750 (GBP 500) in the past 12 months, according to a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies released on Friday. It is considered the largest drop in household income since 1981, and is equal to what households made in 2004.
The think tank said that average take-home income actually went up despite the recent recession because of low inflation and higher social benefits, but the long-term effects of the recession and the threat of a higher consumer price index negated the income hike.
The institute blamed the decline on rising inflation and lower wage increases.
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King earlier warned that British households may suffer from a substantial reduction in their spending power and advised families to anticipate a two-digit increase in energy bills, which would push the inflation rate to 5 percent by the end of 2011.
The study was based on data from 2009-10 when Britain was still under a Labour-led government. At that time, average income was still going up faster than inflation, but the think tank said the trend appears to have reversed beginning last year. During this period, earnings dropped by 3.8 percent in real terms for the first 11 months.
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European stocks rose for a second day as better-than-estimated results from A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S to Hermes International SCA boosted confidence in the economic recovery. Asian shares and U.S. index futures also gained.
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Employment growth in March was at its highest level in two years, according to the latest Adcorp employment index.
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European stocks advanced, rebounding from earlier losses, as banks gained after Commerzbank AG and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA announced capital increases and German factory orders rose more than forecast. Asian shares were little changed and U.S. index futures gained.
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Record corporate earnings and plush cash stockpiles have Carnival, Aetna and virtually all nonfinancial companies in the S&P 500-stock index maintaining or raising dividends
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U.S. stocks advanced, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its third straight weekly rally, as higher-than-estimated corporate earnings overshadowed Chinese central bank’s attempts to control inflation.
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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – British Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said Thursday that the United Kingdom will initiate positive action to ensure workplace equality.
Among the initiatives the coalition government would make are: to name and shame companies that do not provide equality for women workers, give preference to applicants from under-represented groups such as ethnic minorities, gays and disabled people along with placing more women in the boardroom.
The initiatives are contained in the government Equality Strategy, which the minister recently published.
While labor unions welcomed the strategy to remove workplace discrimination based on gender, business leaders were apprehensive it would lead to lawsuits from job applicants.
Featherstone said the target of the coalition government is that 50 percent of all new appointments to public boardrooms by 2015 would be females.
Even on the domestic front, Britain has a lot of catching up in terms of promoting gender equality at home.
According to the newly released international Fairness in Families Index, U.K. was 18th place among 21 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations in the area of equal parenting.
Rob Williams, chief executive of the Fatherhood Institute which released the index, said British families lag in terms of paid paternity leave, time spent caring for children, and men and women’s pay.
Among the measures of family fairness indicators used by the institute were paternity leave, ratio of men’s and women’s time spent caring for children, percent of women in management roles, percent of men in part-time workforce and time spend by men and women performing unpaid domestic work.
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The increase in South Africa’s consumer price index (CPI) was 3.4% in October compared to a year ago, Statistics South Africa says.
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