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Friday newspaper round-up: Greece, UK economy, M&A
Mon, 21 May, 2012
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Friday newspaper round-up: Greece, UK economy, M&A
Fri, 3 Feb 2012, 07:28:00
International debt inspectors believe they have found another €15bn (£12.5bn) black hole in
Greece's public finances
caused by the deepening recession, delivering the crippled nation another devastating blow. With pressure growing over talks with private investors about the terms of a €100bn debt write-off, officials calculated that to bring the country's debts to a sustainable level at 120% of GDP the international community would need to find an extra €15bn, raising the prospect of a Greek default. Sources told news organisations in Brussels that weak growth will make it even more difficult for Greece to resolve its debt problem, leaving the Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund with the prospect of an even larger bail-out than the €130bn planned, The Telegraph says. A former chief economist at the Cabinet Office has accused the Chancellor of causing lasting social and economic damage to the
UK
because of a refusal to ease austerity in the short-term. Jonathan Portes, who was appointed to the Cabinet Office while Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, said that with unemployment forecast to remain high in the coming years, a short-term boost to the economy could avert longer-term pain. Speaking in his current role as director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), a leading think tank, he said: "We are accepting a significant degree of long-term economic and social damage. "It's not primarily about bigger growth next year, it's about the long-run economic and social damage that we are deliberately doing - even in the OBR's own forecasts - because we don't want to take the sort of measures that [NIESR] has been talking about," The Telegraph writes. The moribund
mergers and acquisitions market
sprung dramatically to life yesterday as Glencore made its long-awaited marriage proposal to Xstrata. The Swiss commodities trader wants a merger of equals with Xstrata in a deal that would create the world's fourth-biggest miner with a market value of £55 bn. Shareholders in Xstrata, however, have made it clear that they have no intention of allowing the Anglo-Swiss company to do a deal without a premium being paid. "Dream on, merger of equals," one of Xstrata's largest institutional investors told The Times. Scotland's main housing association body yesterday called on local authorities and other public groups to hand over land for free to meet demand for affordable homes and help the flagging construction industry. The
Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA)
yesterday noted the 35% cut to development budgets, with more set to follow. Graham Harper, the SFHA's policy and strategy manager, told a conference in Dunblane that providing land free or at below market rate will make it possible to build more units, The Scotsman reports.
Virgin Media
is to up the price of its broadband packages, three months after it said it was doubling its customers' speeds for free. In early January, the cable giant announced it would double the speed of its broadband service for more than 4 million of its customers. The upgrade, which begins this month, will also see the service's top speed increase from 100Mbps to 120Mbps.At the time, Virgin Media's chief executive, Neil Berkett, said: "We want to make sure that consumers have access to the best value broadband service and that means a superfast connection." A spokesman added: "Most customers will not notice the upgrades taking place, nor will any have to pay for the changes to take place." However, a few weeks on it has emerged that customers will face price rises averaging more than £25 a year, according to The Guardian. AB
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