The second coldest March on record deterred Britons from visiting the shops last month, and keeps alive the possibility that the UK has slipped into an unprecedented triple dip recession.

Drop in profits for Falklands

Pay packets are growing at their slowest rate on record, forcing thousands more stay-at-home mums to look for work and adding to Britain’s dole queues, official figures revealed today.

The cost of living is still rising more than twice as fast as wage packets but there is some light at the end of the tunnel for beleaguered households, experts said today.

Outlook If you bought shares in Betfair over the last few months, congratulations you’ve backed a winner!  The shares jumped even higher than Aurora’s Encore during his Grand National-winning run yesterday after the private-equity firm, CVC Partners, confirmed that it was pondering a bet on the gambling company that could value it at £750m or more. 

Opposition leader calls for recount ‘of every vote’ in Venezuela’s disputed presidential election

There is no evidence to support the claim that the Coalition has created more jobs in three years than Labour managed in ten. Quite the reverse, in fact

Terry Kirby selects the best bottles to buy

Economic View

Economic View: By leaving office in June 2007, Tony Blair managed, in stock market terms, to sell at the top

Pile into property was the call from City scribblers today. But not bricks and mortar. HSBC's analysts think the market is underestimating shares in the builders of houses. This may come as surprising to some – the UK housebuilder sector has already risen by an average of 24 per cent so far this year, outperforming the mid-cap index by 13 per cent. But HSBC's property team think the "Government's 'game-changing' housing market stimulus" announced at last month's Budget means the housebuilders are set to grow even further.

EE to double network speed

Hammers make assurances over price rises

China's inflation tumbled to 2.1 per cent last month as food price growth slowed, taking pressure off consumers but raising questions about the strength of recovery in the world’s second biggest economy.