Strong growth in the square mile and increased tourism will result in London leapfrogging Chicago to become the “mega-city” with the fourth-largest economy by the middle of the next decade, despite the fact that the size of its population is not expected to grow, reports the Telegraph.
Tokyo is still expected to have the largest economy of any urban centre, followed by New York and Los Angeles, but none of these cities will see their economies grow by as much as the UK capital, the research by New York-based analysts suggests.
RBS sell-off could start by end of year
The Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to indicate this week the government will begin to sell off its stake in it before the end of the year.
Stephen Hester, chief executive of the bank in which the taxpayer has an 83% holding, is expected to announce the institution is on the road to recovery when he unveils its annual results on Thursday, paving the way for a sale of the Government’s shares, according to weekend reports.
RBS, writes the Telegraph, is still expected to be in the red, with analysts predicting a pre-tax loss of £613m for 2010, but this is a marked improvement on the £3.6bn loss recorded for the previous year.
Osborne: Britons hit hardest by inflation
Chancellor George Osborne has admitted inflation on food and fuel is hitting British consumers harder than their counterparts in other countries.
Speaking at the close of the G20 summit of world leaders in Paris, Osborne said the rise in inflation to 4% had been partly driven by the fall in the value of the pound, reports the Mail.
And he said the weakness of sterling had been inevitable because the British economy was riding an unsustainable wave of growth fuelled by high levels of debt.
The depreciation of the currency happened because Britain was overpriced in the world and that rebalancing had to take place,’ he said.
‘It has the effect of helping rebalance the economy, but of course it also has the effect of pushing up oil and food prices in a way that means those prices have gone up more for British consumers than for some other consumers elsewhere in the world,” he said.
