Caesarean rate rises again to reach 23% of births
Caesarean births are up again, new government figures revealed yesterday, suggesting that last year's halt in the rise was just a blip in a long-term trend of increasing ...
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IOC grandee rates London neck and neck with Paris
A leading member of the International Olympic Committee has given London's bid to host the 2012 games a huge boost by declaring that it has now caught up with Paris, the ...
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Bank sits on interest rates before expected election
Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, admitted yesterday that he had been taken unawares by the weakness of consumer spending as he virtually ruled out an inc...
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Spending slump to keep interest rates on hold
Consumer spending slowed even more sharply than first thought in the last quarter of 2004, data showed yesterday. The figures suggest that the Bank of England's interest ...
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May interest rate rise on the cards
An interest rate rise in May looked more likely after minutes today revealed that two Bank of England policy-makers voted in favour of an increase earlier this month.
At...
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Lib Dems pledge to scrap DTI and offer rates rebate
The Liberal Democrats pledged yesterday to abolish the Department of Trade and Industry if they came to power as a mark of their "instinctively pro-business" ethos and op...
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Shy shoppers may negate early rate rise
The likelihood of an early rise in interest rates faded today as retail sales continued to flag at the start of the year.
According to the Office for National Statistics...
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Low rates mean long-term liabilities
Over the past decade we have become used to interest rates and inflation being very low. Rates seen at the time of Black Wednesday in 1992 of 12%-15% seem unreal compared...
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Marriage rate to decline
The number of people prepared to spend £20,000 on getting married is to fall over the next 25 years, according to statistics released yesterday.
The proportion of m...
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Bank pegs rates at 4.75% while waiting for clearer signals
The Bank of England yesterday left interest rates unchanged at 4.75% for the seventh consecutive month amid conflicting data on the economy.
The Bank has hinted recentl...
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