Commercial news round-up: IMF backs tax rises, consumer credit clampdown, Sky takeover, Nisa sale, new pound coin
updated on 12 October 2017
Like the autumn term at university, the news is moving fast. Here is this week’s rundown of the commercial stories you really need to know.
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for rich countries including the United States and United Kingdom to raise taxes on the wealthy as a way of reducing both fiscal deficits and social inequality without damaging economic growth. There has been a backlash from the Trump administration, which is devoted to slashing taxes and deregulation, but the IMF’s stance will be ‘music to the ears’ of left-leaning economists.
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British banks are planning to cut consumer lending through credit cards and loans over the next three months, heeding warnings that debt among UK consumers has risen to the dangerous levels which create conditions for another recession.
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The chairman of Sky, James Murdoch, is defending his position at the subscription broadcaster’s annual meeting today. Murdoch is also the chief executive of 21st Century Fox, which is trying to buy Sky, so his dual position has been described as “inappropriate” and three advisory firms have advised shareholders to vote against his re-election.
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The Co-Op has offered to buy convenience chain Nisa for £137.5 million. It is thought that Nisa’s shopkeeper members may be more sympathetic to the move than a previously mooted offer by Sainsbury’s, due to the Co-Op’s member-owned structure.
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People have expressed frustration at receiving old one pound coins in change from shops, only a week before they will no longer be accepted as legal tender following replacement by the new 12-sided coin.
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