Government
Will Italy be the biggest Credit Crunch Victim?
It is feared that Italy, the eurozone’s third biggest economy, could become the next victim of the debt crisis. It has taken three trading days since the failure of the G20 summit to detonate the explosive charge on Italy’s €1.9 trillion (£1.6 trillion) bond market, the world’s third-largest stock of public debt. Italy is fast becoming the next Greece. The country has 120% debt-to-GDP ratio, and its debt now stands at $2.2 trillion.
After Silvio Berlusconi, the consensus seems to be that a technical government can step in, implement reforms and reverse the growing credit crunch affecting Italian bonds.
40 jobs to go at Keighley and Skipton local tax office.
More than 40 tax office jobs in Keighley and Skipton are to be axed under plans to close another 130 offices nationally.
The Keighley office in Worth House has 16 staff, with 28 affected at Cavendish House, Skipton.
Remaining staff at the two offices, which have already been scaled down, will leave by April 2011. They have been given until February 8 to choose between voluntary redundancy or to be considered for redeployment.
More than 20000 jobs have been axed since 2006, while over the same time HMRC had effectively written off £11bn in uncollected tax
Total losses = 40
Source: Chris Holland of Telegraph & Argus
