Live coverage as UK growth revised down to 2.6%, and the current account deficit hits £27bnUK GDP grew by 2.6% over last year, not 3% Current account makes gloomy readingPreview: Greek MPs vote again 10.06am GMT Heads-up. MPs in Greece are voting on whether to accept the government’s candidate as president. As explained earlier, we expect Stavros Dimas to be rejected, but can he win more support than last week?....There's a new drama on Greek tv called "The Vote" second episode is about to start here http://t.co/sD6aqP9DH5 Saw it last week, was v good. 10.02am GMT Sky’s Ed Conway is alarmed by the deterioration in the UK’s current account balance with the rest of the world:The current account is yr country’s financial balance with rest of world. UK’s really doesn’t look pretty right now pic.twitter.com/RLdR6J5b9V 10.00am GMT There’s a second dose of bad news for Britain’s economy; the current account deficit has soared to £27bn in the third quarter of 2014. That’s £4bn more than economists had expected, and is an eye-watering 6% of GDP. Large fall in invest. income as part of primary income of UK current account in Q3 looks to be standout component that led to large deficitBritain's current account deficit balloons to a record £27 bln in Q3. That's 6% of GDP: pic.twitter.com/wpn2dW7pQa 9.48am GMT This downward revision to UK growth, from 3% to 2.6%, over the last year is particularly disappointing as Britain has already been experiencing the slowest recovery in decades. 9.37am GMT The UK economy grew by 0.7% in the third quarter of 2014, in line with initial expectations, and down from 0.9% in Q2.BUT the Office for National Statistics has revised down the annual growth rate to 2.6%, from 3% previously.ONS leaves its estimate of Q3 2014 quarterly GDP growth unchanged at 0.7%. But previous FIVE quarters revised down pic.twitter.com/ysFxetbrNfOuch! UK ONS: Between Q3 2013 and Q3 2014, #GDP in volume terms increased by 2.6%, revised downwards by 0.4% #NoXmasPresent 9.29am GMT Here come the updated UK growth and current account figures...Gotta love a little UK GDP 9.26am GMT Here’s a handy breakdown of the Greek parliament, showing how the government (left hand side) is struggling to attract support for today’s presidential vote.Smart summary by @MacroPolis_gr of 2nd round vote today in #Greece. No majority in sight for Gov't candidate. pic.twitter.com/9oNaOEzeuB 9.18am GMT Back to the UK festive rush, and John Lewis says it expects a mad rush in the final shopping days before Christmas as it reported a drop in last week’s sales. My colleague Julia Kollewe explains:The department store chain made sales of £160.6m in the week to last Saturday, up 6.5% on the previous week but down 2.4% from a year ago. John Lewis, seen as a barometer of the high street, said customers are leaving their Christmas shopping right up until the last minute. Online sales rose 5.5% year-on-year. 9.06am GMT Italian consumers remain downbeat, as the country endures another recession.Retail sales in Italy stagnated for the second month running in October, with no growth across the sector, data just released showed.Italy retail sales stagnate in October for second month running (0.0%mm, -0.8%yy) 8.59am GMT #Greece | 2nd presidential vote in parliament at 1000 GMT. Threshold still 200 votes. Dimas expected to get 164~166. 8.57am GMT Over in Greece, prime minister Antonis Samaras is nervously waiting to discover if his presidential nominee wins more support than last week.The overture by Samaras – who also pledged to broaden the government to include “pro-European” personalities – appeared to have influenced some skeptical independent lawmakers. A few indicated on Monday that they would vote for the government’s candidate, former European Commissioner Stavros Dimas. The government is certain to fall short of Tuesday’s minimum of 200 votes but its performance will give an indication of whether it will be able to attain the 180 necessary in next Monday’s final ballot to avert snap general elections.@EfiEfthimiou 165 - 167 #GreekVoteGuesses 8.41am GMT It wouldn’t be Christmas without profit warnings. And chocolate maker Thorntons has become the first UK retailer to admit that it won’t hit expectations.Around a quarter has been wiped off Thornton’s value, after it warned that profits will be lower than last year. 8.35am GMT UK GDP up in 1 hour and Greek Presidential voting starts at 1000 GMT 8.29am GMT Russia’s currency crisis has eased a little this morning, with the rouble inching up 1% to 55 roubles to the $1.#IMF raises fears of global #crisis as Russian #bank forced into #bailout http://t.co/b704CZS8fq 8.20am GMT Europe’s stock markets have opened higher, with the FTSurofirst 300 gaining 0.25% in early trading.IG’s Stam Shamu predicts “a cautious tone” today, as investors watch Greece’s second attempt to elect a president. 8.13am GMT Just in... confirmation that France’s economy grew by 0.3% in the third quarter of the year. But it’s arguably not the kind of growth that France really needs.INSEE, the French stats body, confirmed that the growth was driven by household spending (+0.3%) and government spending (+0.6%). French data out this morning: Q3 #GDP confirmed at +0.3%; consumer spending up 0.4% in November (-0.8% in October); producer prices: -0.1% 7.59am GMT Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the financial markets, the world economy, business and the eurozone.The final Q3 GDP numbers from the UK is expected to be confirmed at growth of 0.7% and 3% annualised. The business investment numbers are a concern after the recent adjustment to -0.7%, suggesting that businesses cut back due to uncertainty over the Scottish referendum, with the hope that we will probably have seen a rebound in Q4.We also have US Q3 GDP which is expected to be revised up to an annualised 4.3%, while durable goods ex-transports for November are expected to rebound from the poor October number of -1.1% to a gain of 1%. Continue reading...
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