Unemployment reaches 11-year high

The number of people out of work in the UK in the three months to September jumped by 140,000 to 1.82 million - the highest in 11 years.
The unemployment rate rose to 5.8%, up from 5.4% in the previous quarter, according to official figures.
The number of people claiming the Jobseeker's Allowance rose by 36,500 to 980,900 in October - the highest monthly increase since 1992.
Economists say unemployment in Britain could soon reach the two million-mark.
The number of manufacturing jobs fell to 2.86 million, the lowest figure since records began in 1978.
The so-called claimant count - those claiming the allowance - has now increased for nine months in a row and is 154,800 higher than a year ago.

Read more at BBC NEWS

After exports, tax collection turns negative

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion is expected to release the Index of Industrial Production for September on Wednesday. But if you go by the indirect tax collections reported by the finance ministry for October, the country’s industrial growth scenario going forward looks pretty grim. Excise and custom duty collections have fallen by 5% in the month for the first time in several years.
Incidentally, when IIP growth shrunk to 1.3% in August, indirect tax collections were still seeing positive growth of 4.8%. While indirect tax collections have fallen into negative territory only in October, excise duty collections – a direct indicator of India’s manufacturing output — have seen negative growth for the second month in a row.

Read more at Financial Express

Grim economy data throws spotlight on crisis summit

Weak economic readings from China, Japan and Britain and a grim corporate outlook worldwide reinforced fears on Tuesday of a prolonged recession, prompting investors to look to a world leaders’ summit for solutions. Chinese import growth slowed in October and inflation fell to a 17-month low as domestic demand cooled, making it likely Beijing will cut interest rates soon to back up the government’s new economic stimulus plan. “The increasing risk of deflation will make the central bank more aggressive in loosening monetary policy,” said Hu Yuexiao, an analyst with Shanghai Securities.
In Japan, exports fell nearly 10% in the first 20 days of October, corporate bankruptcies jumped 13.4% year-on-year and sentiment in its service sector hit an all-time low, all signs the world’s second biggest economy was teetering on the brink of recession. German analyst and investor sentiment about the outlook for Europe’s largest economy improved but the ZEW survey, which measures the ratio of optimists to pessimists, still read -53.5, reflecting a large preponderance of the latter.

Read more at Financial Express

India Inc says credit still tight, see more steps

MUMBAI: Companies are still finding liquidity conditions tight despite some aggressive moves by policy makers over the past two months, and more steps might be needed to keep credit flowing, senior executives said on Tuesday. Analysts increasingly expect economic growth could slow to below 7 per cent in the 2008/09 year ending March 2009, with forecasts being downgraded as fears of a global recession grow, from rates of 9 per cent or higher in the past three years. "We have not seen any sharp slowdown in business so far, but there are issues of funding and there are issues of interest rates," K Chandrashekar, senior vice-president of corporate finance at Mahindra and Mahindra, India's top utility vehicle and tractor maker, told reporters at a corporate treasury conference in Mumbai.

Read more at The Economic Times