Economics / Markets

Mark Carney's revolutionary "forward guidance" on interest rates is so half-baked it could pose a threat to financial stability, a former Bank of England economist has warned.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party has won Germany's election, but finished just short of an absolute majority, official results show.

The Federal Reserve has been accused of ‘making policy on the fly' after it opted not to taper its quantitative easing programme at its monthly meeting yesterday.

The US Federal Reserve surprised investors and sent shares soaring after it unexpectedly opted to hold back on any tapering of its stimulus last night.

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Royal Bank of Scotland could make a decision on the sale of its 315-branch Project Rainbow business this week amid reports one of the three bidders for the unit has had its offer rejected.

UK CPI inflation fell from 2.8% to 2.7% in August, in line with economists' expectations, as falling transport costs pushed the headline figure down.

It is "certainly possible" that the coalition government - the power-sharing arrangement between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties in place since 2010 - could break up before the next general election in 2015, Vince Cable has said.

The FTSE 100 has jumped almost 1% after former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers withdrew his candidacy to replace Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke next year.