Economics / Markets

The Liberal Democrats will today challenge the government to reveal how much money part-nationalised RBS and rival Lloyds have lent since a state bailout 12 months ago.

The chief executive of part-nationalised bank Lloyds Banking Group has decided to forgo his bonus for 2009 amid the public backlash against bonuses.

The FTSE100 rose in early Monday trading following strong gains in Japan.

Interest rates could remain on hold until 2011 but are likely to rise sharply thereafter, according to Skandia.

The FTSE 100 opened more than 30 points lower Friday after the US Federal Reserve raised the rate it charges banks for emergency loans by a quarter percentage point to 0.75%.

Henry "Hank" Paulson, the former US Treasury Secretary, admitted that he was wrong to accuse Britain of ruining the rescue of Lehman Brothers.

More than 60 leading economists have backed Alistair Darling's decision to delay spending cuts until 2011, creating a dividing line within the profession on the crucial general election issue of how to tackle the UK's huge public debt.

The Treasury could still hit its budget deficit target for the year despite worse-than-expected January public borrowing figures, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says.

The Government borrowed £4.3bn in January, the first time there has been a budget deficit in January since records began in 1993.

The FTSE was flat in early trading Thursday despite a positive outlook from defence contractor BAE Systems.