In a sign of economic stability returning, the price of oil has been rising steadily recently, suggesting the recession may be easing slightly. US light crude was up 48 cents last Monday, after peaking at $74.81 during the day, which is the highest price since October 2008.
Meanwhile, Brent crude oil rose by 7 cents to close on $74.26 on Monday, 24 August, which reinforces the growing strength once again in the oil industry.
Oil analyst, Edward Meir, backs this positive growth up by saying he believes “We could now easily move towards the $80 mark” if the market continues to remain optimistic.
The cost of the UK’s membership in the European Union is set to rise by around 60% in 2009/10. Currently the United Kingdom pays out a total contribution of £4.1bn, but that is set to rise to £6.4bn over the next year or so.
According to the UK treasury, they believe it is fair to “share the burden of membership with new accession countries”, a statement which is opposed by the Tory party who claim it is a sign of “Labour’s incompetence” since they have been in power.
The figures show a dramatic rise from £53 per household in 2004 to a potential £260 per household in 2010, signifying a possible 490% increase.
Following a number of staff strikes spread over several locations between the 7th August to the 10th August, it has been announced further strikes will be going ahead by workers of Royal Mail from today.
This second phase of strikes is set to run for a week from today, 17th August to next Monday, 24th August. As with the first set of strikes, various locations will be affected on certain days. According to the BCB the following strike schedule is to take place:
17 August: London, Coventry, Leamington Spa, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent
19 August: Birmingham, Coventry, London, Essex, Peterborough, Bristol, Leeds
20 August: Peterborough
21 August: Peterborough, Kings Lynn
22 August: Boston, Carrickfergus
24 August: Skegness, Huntingdon
The strikes are in protest of proposed modernisation suggestions put forward by Royal Mail, which include cutting jobs and other measures to combat electronic media.
The Bank of England has released their quarterly Inflation Report, a document that summaries the UK’s financial progress over that period. The report warns that 2010 will be “fragile” for the economy in the UK in terms of recovering from the recession that is currently upon the nation.
Despite the Bank recently adding an additional £50bn of new money in to circulation in an attempt to boost a turnaround in the current downwards spiral, the Banks governor Mervyn King has stated that more is needed, they “estimate…a further £50bn” will be needed to try and boost the overall economic growth.
The Lloyds Banking Group, which is the largest bank in the UK following their merger with struggling HBOS in January, has posted huge losses of around £4bn in the first six months of 2009.
The significant loss figure is being attributed to spiralling debts that were absorbed by Lloyds from HBOS after the takeover of the bank. The actual cause is thought to be because Lloyds have had to write-down a large number of the HBOS assets as their value has either depreciated or was less than originally estimated.
Lloyds Banking Group is 43% state-owned after they accepted a sum of money during their takeover of HBOS, which brought up to £10.7bn of debt from the bank, which was facing serious financial diffculties at the time.