The state-owned South African power firm, Eskom, raised its prices by a whopping 24.8 per cent recently, causing many trade unions to threaten strikes in protest.
Businesses and the general public are likely to struggle to cope with such a surge in price, say the unions, while the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that businesses were already struggling due to the recession, implying that this could tip many over the edge.
Eskom has been struggling to meet the country’s electricity needs of late and needs finance in order to build additional power stations, therefore, this price was not unexpected. Power rationing is being implemented, which has been hugely problematic for South African mines, which are at the heart of the nation’s economy.
France’s largest retail bank, Credit Agricole, recently announced its quarterly results. A disappointing level of profit was largely explained by major losses in Greece.
The bank made £380million in the fourth quarter of 2009, but predictions had been for around 10 per cent more than that. However, this followed on from a deficit in the fourth quarter of 2008. In all, Credit Agricole profited by over a billion euros in 2009 – a 10 per cent improvement on the preceding year.
The bank is confident that their position will remain strong into 2010, saying that initial trends confirm this view.
British gas saw record profits in 2009, it has been announced. A 58 per cent increase in profit saw the residential side of the company profit by £595million – an improvement on the 2007 figure of £573million.
In response to this, British Gas will aim for a profit margin of around 7 per cent this year, where 2009 was closer to 8 per cent. This means that gas prices will be reduced by around 7 per cent and could also see 1,100 jobs created this year.
The energy supplier acquired 141,000 customers last year, taking its total customer base to 15.7million homes.
Immigration from central and east Europe is in decline according to recent figures. The number of people arriving in the UK from these countries declined by a third in the 12 months up until June last year – 68,000 people, compared to around 100,000 in the previous 12 months.
Other related figures include the number of asylum seekers, which have been fewer in the last three months of 2009 compared to the same period in the previous year.
Deportations and unauthorised migrants who left voluntarily were 64,750 in the year, which is about 3,000 fewer.
However, the number of people seeking British citizenship increased by about a third.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has recently announced its 2009 financial results and the ailing bank is down £3.6billion.
The loss is largely as a result of bad loans, but regardless of this dire position, bonuses are being paid to the tune of £1.3billion. The reasoning is that productive staff have been lost through not paying good enough bonuses in the past.
However, this will come as unwelcome news to many in the UK as 84 per cent of the bank is owned by the public after the government was forced to step in towards the end of 2008 as the financial difficulties threatened the future of RBS.