The Great Debate UK
A reality check from Standard & Poor’s
– Neil Collins is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own –
Standard & Poor’s could have chosen a better day to kick the British economy, by placing the UK onto “negative outlook”, the usual precursor to a downgrade of S&P’s rating of an issuer’s debt.
The move came minutes before the Debt Management Office closed its massive auction of 5 billion pounds of 2014 stock, and minutes after the release of figures showing the Public Sector Net Borrowing Requirement leaping to 8.5 billion pounds in April, a sum which not long ago would have been considered high for a whole year.
Economist Howard Archer at Global Insight immediately called the figure “dire, starting the new fiscal year off as it is highly likely to continue.”
Bank of Ireland shares welcome debt buyback
— Margaret Doyle is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are her own –
Investors valued Bank of Ireland’s stock at 12 cents apiece in March, placing it firmly in the 99 percent club — those that had lost nearly all their value. After the results on Tuesday, they were changing hands at almost 12 times that level. If anything, the outlook for the Irish economy has worsened since then.
