The US Federal Reserve kept its 85bn-dollar-a-month asset purchase programme unchanged last night but said that it was willing to increase it as it shifted to a more neutral stance on its next move. “In a new line added to its regular statement, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee said it could move the rate of asset purchases up as well as down depending on what happens to prices and jobs. The committee had previously hinted that it might reduce its monthly purchases,” the Financial Times writes.
The National Institute for Economic & Social Research, NIESR, has said that revisions to official data could see Britain’s double-dip recession “revised away”, though a proper recovery is not forecast until 2015, according to The Telegraph.
The Guardian writes that Facebook lost 10m users in the US over the past year and saw no growth in monthly visitors in the UK. Research from Nielsen showed that the number of unique visitors to the social network fell from 153m to 142m year-on-year in March.
“Almost 10,000 coalminers and former colliers may have their pensions cut as the company responsible for their promised retirement benefits teeters on the brink of insolvency,” . The Times paper says that UK Coal Mine Holdings is trying to stave off liquidation in the aftermath of a fire that closed its Daw Mill mine in February.
Google is facing a fresh grilling by MPs over its tax in the UK, according to The Telegraph. The paper says that “alleged inconsistencies emerged in how the web giant claims its London staff do not sell advertising to British clients”.
More than a quarter of a million homeowners won’t be able to pay off their mortgages at the end of their terms. The Financial Conduct Authority said that nearly half of the people with interest-only loans have no plans to repay their debt. The Independent.
