A ray of hope pierced the long-term gloom over Europe yesterday after UKemployment rose and Greece delayed the deadline on a bond programme key to unlocking further aid.
British full-time hiring hit a 19-month high last month in a sign of "cautious optimism", KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said yesterday.
"The negative outlook has been replaced by cautious optimism as employers gradually gain confidence," said Bernard Brown, KPMG's head of business services.
The gauge of permanent job placements reported by employment consultancies rose to 56 from 55 in October, the groups said yesterday. Readings above 50 indicate an increase in hiring.
A measure of hiring of temporary workers also climbed, to the highest since March last year, while full-time job vacancies rose at their fastest pace in 19 months.
However, "recovery is by no means certain and we need a few more months like this to suggest emerging trends are translating into a sustained period of growth in employment", said Mr Brown.
And the clouds of uncertainty are still very much in evidence over the rest of the United Kingdom.
Britain's economy is showing signs of cooling after emerging from recession in the third quarter with the strongest growth since 2007. A separate report yesterday showed Britons' confidence about keeping their jobs fell to its lowest level in four months last month, said Lloyds Bank. An index of job security dropped 5 points from October to minus 18, the lowest since July, the lender said.
In the euro zone, Greece, in an attempt to generate stronger participation in its key government bond buyback programme, yesterday extended the deadline for banks, funds and investors who own its debt to declare whether they will sell their holdings back at a heavy discount on their nominal value.
The public debt management agency (PDMA) said bondholders now had until 4pm today to make up their minds.
Greece was near its target in the buyback with the amount offered close to €30 billion (Dh142.32bn), an official at the Greek finance ministry said on condition of anonymity, referring to the face value of the securities.
The original deadline expired on Friday, with Greece's largest banks saying they would participate.
The programme aims to cut some €20bn from the crisis-hit country's debt load and ensure it continues to get its international bailout loans. The government plans to spend about €10bn in European funds on the buyback, offering between 30 and 40 per cent of the bonds' face value.
Stelios Papadopoulos, the head of the PDMA, insisted yesterday bondholders were being offered a good deal.
"Greece will continue to engage with its official sector creditors in considering further steps to put its debt on a sustainable path," he said. "Future measures may not involve an opportunity to exit investments in [designated Greek bonds] at the levels offered for this buyback."
Greece is hoping on Thursday to receive a €34bn rescue loan instalment, after a six-month delay caused by two national elections and long-dragging negotiations with the European Union, IMF and European Central Bank over further demanded cutbacks.
Although Athens has now adopted the spending, welfare and income cuts - coupled with new tax hikes - to get the money, it still has to tie up the debt buyback over the next few days and table new tax laws. Domestic and overseas investors offered to sell back to Greece as much as €27bn of their holdings of the nation's bonds, state-run NET TV reported. Greek banks submitted offers of about €10bn, while foreign investors, including hedge funds, offered as much as €16bn, Greece's Kathimerini newspaper said.
Antonis Samaras, the prime minister, was upbeat on Sunday about the buyback. "I am convinced that by Monday or Tuesday, one will be able to say with relative certainty things have gone very well," he said.
business@thenational.ae
* with agencies
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Company%20Profile
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WTL%20SCHEDULE
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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MATCH INFO
Manchester City 1 (Gundogan 56')
Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Solomon 69')
Director: Romany Saad
Starring: Mirfat Amin, Boumi Fouad and Tariq Al Ibyari
The specs: 2018 Renault Megane
Price, base / as tested Dh52,900 / Dh59,200
Engine 1.6L in-line four-cylinder
Transmission Continuously variable transmission
Power 115hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque 156Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.6L / 100km
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Key features of new policy
Pupils to learn coding and other vocational skills from Grade 6
Exams to test critical thinking and application of knowledge
A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance, Assessment, Review and Analysis for Holistic Development) will form the standard for schools
Schools to implement online system to encouraging transparency and accountability
LIKELY TEAMS
South Africa
Faf du Plessis (captain), Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Lungi Ngidi.
India (from)
Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wkt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.