Further Cut of Interest Rate
In order to deal with the soaring fears over UK’s rapidly worsening prospects following a deluge of dire economic news and a mounting toll of job losses, the Bank of England just ordered futher interest cut to 1.5% today. The move brings the interest rate down to the lowest point in 314 years.
The Bank warned in its statement that the pace of contraction in the gloom economy during the past quarter would prove more severe than the already steep 0.5% decline suffered in the previous quarter, and that “output is likely to continue to fall sharply during the first part of the year”.
In a bleak assessment, the Bank also highlighted signs that consumer spending was faltering, and a worsening outlook for business investment and housebuilding, and the continued lending drought facing both household and corporate borrowers.
Many economic analysts also have warned that the market condition will suffer its worst year since 1946 and further shrink during 2009.
Toy Story
This Monday, the toy designer and distributor Character Group, which owns the rights to characters including Postman Pat and Scooby Doo, just reported a 59% fall in full-year pre-tax profits to 5.1 million pound and cut its final dividend as it warned of weak retail conditions.
The company added that its Doctor Who range continued to do well, with new products added to the portfolio, while it had also won new licences for Hannah Montana and High School Musical.
Apple Ends the Era of Digital Rights Management
Until now, iTunes, the world’s most popular on-line music store, could only offer a limited number of songs from the EMI label and independents.
Apple has just signed deals with Warner Music Group, Sony and Universal Music Group, to sell DRM-free songs. In return, a new system of tiered prices for the songs offered by Apple. The anti-piracy lock and key system finally ended with Apple finally made agreements with all the big music labels. It indicates the end of the last bastion of digital rights management.
Million songs will be available from the iTunes store DRM-free from today, allowed to be played on any Apple device.
Tricky 2009 for the Office Market
According to experts in the field, the office market this year can best be described as “performed reasonably well,” with a number of hightlight. However, these highlights have papered over the cracks that have begun to appear and which could widen as we move in to 2009.
For the corporate occupier, the lack of supply in the city centres will lead to the market concentrating on the out of city supply where the stock varies widely in terms of quality and prices.
Looking forward what will the year have in store? With all the economic indicators and commentators predicting little signs of recovery till the end of the year, without doubt 2009 is going to be a very difficlt year. And with no doubt that it will have an affect on the whole office market.
Industry Property Review of the Year
What a difference a year can make!
Like every property market, the industrial/warehouse marketplace has had a particularly challenging year. The “warm and cosy” conditions that we had become accustomed to have turned very cold and brittle.
The statistics tell the tale well. To add to the difficulty in the market place, there is an increase in the supply available. And the figure is likely to increase next year dependent on the outcome of the administration of Woolworths. The new development marketplace for industrial buildings has virtually ground to a halt with credit crunch restricting the supply of money into this market. At present there are no new industrial/warehouse building being built and it is unlikely to change soon.
The Government has not helped matters by introducing empty rates payments on vacant buildings which has put occupiers and investors under more financial pressure. The recent minor changes announced by the Government will have little or no effort. The increased overheads have resulted in the demolition of buildings to avoid empty rates payments. All this gloom put to one side, there is still a market and the picture is not as miserable as people think at the first place. Notable deals for the year have seen some activities. As to the future, 2009 looks as if it may be a more difficult trading period than 2008.
Lockerbie Plans For Top Data Hubs
The world’s largest data center, a new business park and a sustainable village with hundreds of homes could be created in the south-west of Scotland under an ambitious 800 million pound development plan.
The Peelhouses data centre and sustainable village in Lockerbie would generate some of its power from wind turbines and a new bio-mass station. With global demand for data storage expected to double by 2012, demand already outstrips supply. A planning application for the development is expected to be filed in March. Data centres house servers and back-up storage systems for websites and business. The new village, linked to lockerbie by paths and cycle ways, would also help meet demand for social housing in the area.
How to Save Money During Christmas
During the time of credit crunch, having a thrifty little Christmas becomes the No.1 option of many families across the world.
There are many simple ways to save money during holidays. Some of them are listed below. You might already have tried several of them.
First of all, the cost of purchasing Christmas cards could be considerably high.
Always bear in mind that Christmas cards usually go on sale in December. So, the longer you wait, the better!
This Christmas, it might be necessary for you to scale down sending Christmas cards to the people you would like to get in touch with the most. You can send postcards or letters, instead of Christmas cards as they require less postage than a regular card.
You can make Christmas cards by yourself or simply cut the old Christmas cards from last year in half, and send the pretty side as a postcard.
All these ideas work great, plus you’re being ‘earth friendly’ by keeping new cards out of the garbage dumps.
Secondly, pretty Wrapping Paper, ribbons and bows could be very expensive as well. Why not use some pretty magazine pages or comic section of your newspaper to wrap small gifts. They could be very individual and fashionable. And reuse the saved wrapping paper and wrapping decoration can also be good.
Last but not least, for entertainment, though it could wonderful to take your family to the movie theater during the Christmas holiday, this could also be a good time to catch up on the videos that have come out for rental during the holiday season.
Hope that there will be a few more ideas you can add to your frugal holiday traditions.
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