Chinese nationalist groups are launching cyber-attacks 
Europe is still in short-term crisis mode over Ukraine and lacks a vision for its post-war identity 
Latest inflation figures are good news 
The budget is full of good news, but good news isn’t the same as good management 
How German media attention idealises female Ukrainian refugees 
Over 26 million South Africans get a social grant. Fear of losing the payment used to be a reason to vote for the ANC, but no longer – study 
How supermarkets are changing their branding to make you think they’re cheaper 
Britain is not as broken as everyone seems to think 
- Latest data available from OECD shows that UK remains among the lowest in terms of Bank loans as percentage of GDP in the European Union.
- Since the financial crisis, Bank of England (BOE) has kept the interest rates very accommodative at 0.5%. In 2012, the bank had launched funding for lending scheme to help the growth of loan portfolio and help businesses.
- Despite so, bank loan as a percentage of GDP remains close to 20 percent only higher than Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Whereas the ratio is highest in Denmark, above 50 percent.
- On 26th February, BOE published the data on funding for lending scheme that showed the take up is only £ 55.7 billion, much smaller than an economy, ready for growth without the assistance of central bank, would need.
- Bank of England, so far seems determined to hike rates but even so uneven economic dockets published across board would keep their pace slow.
Pound is currently trading at 1.5450, may remain under pressure against dollar however continue to perform well against other pairs. Pound is up against Euro (0.2%) & Yen (0.35%) in today's trading.
