Yambo

Careful financing of the right areas has been credited with playing a key role in Britain’s outstanding recent performance at the Olympics.

Team GB finished fourth in the overall medals table, above the likes of Australia and Germany.

Heavy investment in sports planning, coaching and equipment has since been highlighted as a key factor in the success.

Last month’s performances were a vast improvement on the 1996 Atlanta Games, when Britain ended up in 36th place in the final table, winning just one gold medal.

Simon Clegg of the British Olympic Association told BBC radio that cash for the best coaches and systems were needed to “get success on a consistent basis”.

He also warned other nations would now be looking ahead and investing in their own development before the London 2012 Olympics.

Officials are now planning to expand the country’s competitiveness across a wider range of sports after the UK saw most of its gold metals clustered in a few sports.

Britain’s cyclists did particularly well at the Beijing games, while a haul of golds were also collected in water-related sports.

Team GB came eighth in the table of athletics-related medals, seen by some as a slightly disappointing showing.

Article supported by Physioroom.com, Coccyx Cushion suppliers.

The growth of the global mobile phone market is set to slowdown this year thanks to the global credit crunch, analysts say.

Deutsche Bank and Oppenheimer & Co have both cut their predictions for the industry, which had estimated the market would grow by 8.1 per cent this year.

This has been cut to 6.1 per cent to 1.22 billion phones this year, a full two per cent down on the earlier figure.

“We think consumers globally are stretching out their phone replacements, holding off on purchases to pay for gas or food or the mortgage,” write Brian Modoff and Jonathan Goldberg at Deutsche Bank in a report.

“Conditions are just going to get tougher for the industry over the forthcoming year.”

The downbeat report also contained the pair’s own unique view on how to solve problems facing the mobile handset sector.

“Driving to work last week, we passed a warehouse on fire, sending up a thick plume of black smoke.

“The thought occurred to us that there has to be a better way to get rid of excess inventory, but judging from the state of the wireless handset industry, maybe there isn’t.”

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A survey of landlords by Alliance & Leicester Mortgages reveals professional buy-to-letters with properties in the capital area are landing the highest profits. (more…)

New data by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) revealed today that the dawdling housing market has enhanced the demand for rental homes but reduced the popularity for flats. (more…)

Fears of the rising credit crunch seem to be driving consumers closer to their ATMs during this holiday shopping season. An increase, in the first ten days of December, by 7.1% over last month has been noted by the cash machine network operator, LINK. For the past four years, according to LINK, the figure was closer to 5%.

Conversely, payments association APACS reported last month a prediction in the fall of cash spending to the tune of 5% over this Christmas season – dipping from £19.8 billion in 2006 to £18.9 billion.

Credit card mogul MasterCard reported weaker sales in shops for the month of November, showcasing a decrease in the annual retail sales growth rate from 4.5% to 4%.

The latest overall retail spending figures, released yesterday, seem to support the declining credit usage trends.

Bearing in mind these facts and figures point directly to human beings attempting to stay afloat financially, while putting a bit of figgy pudding on the Yuletide table, will ultimately benefit them by using what cash they have, rather than landing deeper in the hot winter coals of over-extended credit.

Weathering the current credit storm for individuals seeking personal loans or mortgages may hinge on their swiftness to act before Christmas. (more…)

The ongoing global financial crisis is tightening the limits on the amount consumers are being allowed to charge on their credit cards.

Borrowing limits for historically good paying customers aren’t being spared either, and many are being “slashed” by providers, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Joining the mix of frightened lenders, credit card provider Goldfish admitted to the newspaper that it had cut limits for a “small number” of card users.

This rolling calamity began with the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage sector in the US – causing many socio-economically challenged mortgage holders to default on their monthly payments.

As lenders swiftly foreclosed on thousands upon thousands of homes and properties, it quickly emerged that many major financial institutions had previously purchased some of these sub-prime debts; and would subsequently face great losses with the sector’s collapse.

As a result, banks raised the rates at which they were willing to lend to each other, in a credit squeeze which is now being felt at the highest levels of the street.

Further credit turbulence is highly anticipated in the future, with the volatile behaviour of the global stock markets yesterday demonstrating that the fallout from the ongoing crisis will continue for some time.

London’s FTSE index experienced its biggest drop since August after investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted big losses for rival Citigroup as a result of the sub-prime collapse.

Citigroup, whose shares dropped 6% yesterday as a result of the forecast, had been highly exposed to the US sub-prime market.

In direct response to the ongoing credit crises and according to debt consultancy Thomas Charles in conjunction with pollsters YouGov, one in four Britons now intend to “avoid” using their credit cards this Christmas season.

The crunch in global financial markets, ignited by the US sub-prime meltdown this summer, led to the bank run on Northern Rock earlier this fall, further deteriorating consumer confidence.

“The research that has been done clearly shows that people are thinking about how much they are spending and they are thinking about spending within their budget,” stated James Falla Director of Thomas Charles.

However, Mr. Falla expressed uncertainty as to whether consumers would actually wean themselves from excessive credit card expenditure during the heaviest spending time of year.

“I think that around this time of year it’s easy to almost make a resolution to do something, but it’s a very difficult time of year to do it - particularly when the natural instinct is to go out and spend more,” he said.

According to Thomas Charles’ research, some 15% of Britons are currently in debt of greater than £10,000. Overall, men were found to be more indebted than women.

Debt consultancy Thomas Charles polled nearly 2,000 consumers in advance of the traditionally busiest time of year for department stores and found that nearly one quarter planned to reject spending on their credit cards this Christmas season.

Additionally, 10% of those polled stated they would avoid making any large transactions on credit for the next six months.

These indicators released today, point to a likely financial slump for providers and retailers alike.
The findings also signified a separate result of the poll, which indicated that 15% of pollsters already held unsecured debts from cards and loans in excess of £10,000.

“Interest rate rises and subsequent mortgage hikes mean that people have been relying on credit for their everyday expenditure - credit they can often ill afford,” said Managing Director of Thomas Charles James Falla.

Adding, “These results show that Britons are finally making positive steps towards confronting the amount of debt they are carrying. This is good news for the man on the street, but may signify bad news for retailers who have come to rely upon the vast amounts of credit spent at Christmas time.”

The total amount of debt among Britons is currently estimated at roughly £1.5 trillion.