All the day’s economic and financial news, as UK retail heavyweights report their Christmas trading figures * Latest: Tesco and M&S shares drop * Tesco: A record Christmas, but below City forecasts * M&S: Food and clothing sales fall * John Lewis: Sales up, but inflation hits profits * Intro: Separating the Christmas crackers from the turkeys 11.10am GMT Over in Greece the statistics service has announced a further drop in unemployment - by far the country’s biggest social ill. From a record high of of almost 28% in September 2013, Greece’s jobless rate dropped to 20.7% in October with Elstat, the country’s statistics agency, putting the number of registered unemployed at 990.288 people. At the height of Athens’ debt crisis five years ago more than 1.3 million Greeks were recorded as being out of work resulting in a massive exodus of well-trained professionals to wealthier European countries. 10.35am GMT TAKE NOTE, CONSUMERS AND RETAILERS. LENDERS ARE MAKING IT HARDER TO GET CREDIT. The Bank of England has just reported that the availability of unsecured credit to households decreased in the last three months of 2017 - the fourth quarterly decline in a row. Lenders expected a significant decrease in Q1 [January-March 2018]. Credit scoring criteria for granting total unsecured loan applications tightened again in Q4, and lenders expected them to tighten significantly further in Q1. Bank of England credit conditions survey - lenders tightened unsecured credit criteria throughout 2017 (e.g. for credit cards & personal loans) and expect to do so again at the start of 2018. pic.twitter.com/wBX39zzW9s Continue reading...
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