Inflation

THE BANK OF ENGLAND quashed lingering hopes of another interest rate cut yesterday as it signalled that it now expects its next move to be an increase in borrowing costs, reports the Times .

PRUDENTIAL IS UNDERSTOOD to have ruled out any move on Standard Life as the Edinburgh mutual prepares for its £5bn stock-market flotation, believing that the UK market would not generate the returns to justify a big-money outlay, reports The Scotsman...

STANDARD LIFE ON Tuesday put a £5.5bn price on its head and revealed that it had already rebuffed a number of approaches, including one from Resolution Life, the specialist investor in life assurance funds which manages closed books of with-profits business,...

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics today suggest consumer prices increased in February according to the official way of measuring changes.

Fears of a possible end to the current strong growth in equity returns are being driven by "false signals" as a continued bullish nature towards global market should be expected in 2006, suggest Standard Life Investments strategists.

CASH-STRAPPED companies will be able to reduce their payments to the Government's pensions lifeboat in return for promising their headquarters to their final salary scheme, according to the Times .

UK house price inflation was 3.3% in September, up from a nine-year low of 2.8% in August, according to latest figures from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

PARENTS COULD be hit by a marginal income tax rate of 78% because of the complex way benefits and taxes interact, leading accountants argue in the Daily Telegraph .

THE NUMBER of people asking about buying a house last month rose at the sharpest rate for two years, suggesting that the property market is beginning to pick up, according to this morning's papers.

MERRILL LYNCH, JPMorgan and Jupiter Asset Management have lost out in the battle to manage the £100m Deutsche Equity Income Trust (DEIT), reports The Times .