VAT is expected to rise under the new Conservative & Liberal Democrat coalition government, according to a survey of influential economists. 24 of the 28 independent economists surveyed by the Treasury, 24 expected the rate to rise.
Raising VAT to 20% would bring in an extra £11.5bn a year according to Analysts. VAT was temporarily cut [...]
JCB has started recruiting up to 200 new staff to meet an increase in demand for new products. The news comes after nearly 2,000 redundancies during the recession, with some former employees now working back at the company.
A three year pay deal has also been agreed with employees, who have not had a pay rise [...]
Boosted by new product launches and cost savings, Sony Ericsson has reported a surprise profit for the first three months of 2010, despite a drop in mobile phone sales of 28% from a year ago. Net profit was 21m euros ($28m; 18m), compared to a 293m euros loss a year earlier.
The new Xperia X10 and [...]
A 37% rise in first-quarter profits has been reported by the Internet giant Google, beating analysts’ expectations. An increase in online spending by advertisers is cited as helping to increase revenue by 23% to $6.78bn. Pay-per-click online advertising profits rose 15% from the same quarter last year, as the internet advertising market continues its recovery [...]
The Bank of America has reported a net income of $3.2 billion for the first quarter of 2010. This compares to a $194m loss for the previous quarter but compared to the same period 12 months ago, profits are down 24%.
The latest results have been driven by record trading activity and sales in the bank’s [...]
Travellers whose holiday plans have been ruined by the volcanic ash that has grounded UK flights since Thursday are facing confusion and mixed messages over travel insurance.
Many travellers will face the cost of hotel rooms and care hire that hasn’t been used, although airlines are offering to rebook or refund flights. It is feared that [...]
The news today about the upturn in US economic is definitely welcoming but we should not quite celebrate yet. The figures indicated that the US economy grew at a rate of 3.5% in Q3 but we have to take into account the huge government stimulus that has been injected into the economy. Part of the [...]
At the start of the global recession, the Icelandic banks famously collapse forcing the government to rely on a £6.1bn international aid package. This caused a massive drop in the value of the currency (krona), making the importing of goods extremely expensive.
McDonald’s have announced that they will pull their franchised operation out of Iceland due [...]
One of the world’s most famous and loved chocolate producers Cadbury, has recently had a bid from Kraft believed to be in the region of 10.2bn. Cadbury is one of the largest chocolate producers, owning stock such as trident chewing gum, halls lozenges and bassets. Cadbury has a strong British heritage, compared to the US [...]
The Cadbury bubbly chocolate bar, discontinued in 2003, successfully relaunched in 2007 thanks to social networking website Facebook. A campaign was launched by users contending with the discontinuation with the much sought after chocolate bar. The Wispa bar is a direct contender to Nestlé’s aero. Upon its relaunch, it was sold for a limited time [...]