Bank of England governor says “certain developments” could mean UK assets are seen as riskier, as EU referendum approaches * Summary: Treasury committee grills Carney * Full story: Carney could do eight years at the BoE * Full story: Andrew Bailey is new City watchdog chief * Chinese stock market slumped 6% today * But European markets are recovering 4.06pm GMT THE RECOVERY IN THE OIL PRICE HAS GIVEN A BOOST TO STOCK MARKETS AND FOLLOWS HOPES THAT OPEC WOULD BE WILLING TO CUT PRODUCTION IF NON-MEMBER COUNTRIES - NOTABLY RUSSIA - ALSO AGREE TO REDUCE SUPPLY. Iraqui oil minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said he saw some flexibility for a deal with rival producers, and as a consequence, Brent crude is now up 2.9% at $31.38. But given the recent volatility, the gains may not last long. Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at online trading group IG, said: As oil goes, so goes the rest of the market. Yesterday a rapid decline in crude paved the way for stock markets to give up their gains, but today the price of black gold is on the up again, with the reliable market rumour of production cuts providing the foundation for both Brent and WTI to move back above $31 a barrel. At this point, a decision between Opec and non-Opec members to cut production is not the important element; the key point is such talk allows the price to move upwards to a position where bears can hit the ‘sell’ button once again. 4.00pm GMT MORE PROTESTS IN GREECE. Helena Smith reports: Unionists representing Greece’s 35,000-strong nurses’ federation have been protesting outside the finance ministry in the latest display of fury over the leftist-led government’s draft proposals overhauling the pension system. Nurses, who have been hard hit by austerity, starting with relentless rounds of wage cuts, have become increasingly vociferous in recent months. Many turned up in surgery outfits. The country’s union of civil servants (ADEDY) will stage a much bigger protest rally and march this evening to coincide with an extraordinary debate in parliament over the proposed measures. It will be the first time that prime minister Alexis Tsipras clashes in the 300-seat House with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the newly-elected leader of New Democracy, the centre right main opposition party. The Harvard-educated erswhile banker, among the biggest champions of reform in Greece, has recently been leading polls. Odysseus Trivalas, who heads ADEDY, told me: “Without any prospect of growth or reduction in unemployment the proposed pension reforms are unsustainable. The government keeps saying without these measures the system will collapse but we argue that with contributions so low and unemployment so high it will collapse anyway if the government does not provide extra funding through the budget.” “The funds should have been strengthened with all that money that was initially earmarked for the recapitalisation of banks. They didn’t listen to us and now they will pay the price because these protests are not going to end soon.” Forecasts that Greek banks would need as much as €25bn to withstand possible shocks proved to be vastly over-inflated when it was estimated in November that recapitalisation needs would not exceed more than €5.7bn. Continue reading...
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