Economics / Markets

The Tories have detailed plans to set up an independent office for budget responsibility and tax simplification in their electoral Manifesto today.

The Tories have confirmed new businesses will pay no National Insurance (NI) in their initial year for the first ten employees, during the opening two years of a Conservative government.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne today put the economy at the centrepiece of the Tory election manifesto and pledged not to put taxes on jobs whilst the economy is still weak.

The Tories have pledged to raise the the secondary threshold at which employers start paying National Insurance (NI) by £21 a week, countering what it calls Labour's "job tax" of a 1% NI increase.

The FTSE 100 has opened 0.06% or 3.24 points lower to 5,774 in early trading as rises in retail stocks were offset by falling mining shares.

The Arsenal boardroom power struggle could heat up after the club's fourth-largest shareholder appointed a firm to find a buyer for her shares.

Euphoria over a joint EU-IMF rescue deal for Greece worth €45bn (£39.8bn) appears short-lived, after angry reactions in Germany and continued concerns among bond investors any bail-out merely delays the worst.

A report has criticised Iceland's authorities for failing to lessen the damage of the collapse of its banking system collapse and for "missing an opportunity" to protect UK depositors.

The Dow Jones opened above 11,000 for the first time since September 2008 as investor confidence surged on the back of an agreement to provide a loan package for Greece.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown today described the upcoming General Election as "the first post-crisis vote and the most important in a generation".