UK Roundup: Average Salaries Drop; IMF Downgrades Forecast; Pension Plans Forced to Address Liabilities; Home Prices Drop
by ilene - July 12th, 2010 3:29 am
UK Roundup: Average Salaries Drop; IMF Downgrades Forecast; Pension Plans Forced to Address Liabilities; Home Prices Drop
Courtesy of Mish
Things look pretty grim for the UK judging from a series of articles by the Daily Mail. Let’s take a look.
Average Salaries Drop
Workers pay the penalty for recession as average annual salary drops £2,600 in just SIX months
The average annual salary has dropped by more than £2,600 in the last six months, it emerged today.
New figures reveal employers are still exercising caution, with wages falling across the board from £28,207 to £25,543 – a difference of £2,664.
Salaries in the financial sector appear to have suffered the most – those offered at the point of entry have dropped by almost £12,000.
The figures show that where young bankers could have expected to start on £52,174.43 six months ago, they will probably earn closer to £30,127.60 now.
Will wage deflation morph into outright deflation? Why not?
Property Prices Drop
House prices fall for third month in a row – but Bank keeps rates on hold… again
Property prices fell for the third month in a row during June as the housing market recovery showed further signs of faltering.
The average cost of a home dropped by 0.6 per cent during the month, following a 0.5 per cent slide in May and a 0.1 per cent decline in April, according to Halifax.
The figures, which follow a raft of recent gloomy data on the housing market, will further stoke speculation that the house price recovery is running out of steam.
This is not even a start of what is going to happen. Canada, Australia, the UK, and China all have property bubbles that are about to burst wide open.
New Pension Rules
Brussels threatens final salary pension as EU plans to force firms to cover liabilities
Final salary pension schemes in the private sector could be wiped out by controversial rules drawn up by Europe.
Under new proposals published yesterday, firms will be forced to plough even more money into schemes to cover future liabilities.
They will also have to invest more in the ultra-safe bonds and gilts markets, rather than shares and equities, which carry a greater risk but can give a better return.
The collapse of final salary pension schemes in the last decade has been partly due to the British