IMF issues UK debt warning - papers

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned long-term fiscal reforms will be required among advanced economies as it projected the UK's gross debt to GDP would rise to 90.6% in 2015.

The Washington-based fund says while some countries - including the UK - had made a start on the reform process, more action would be needed to address the "formidable challenge" of reducing debt ratios over the coming years, the Telegraph reports.

It says the UK gross debt to GDP ratio would more than double by 2015 from 44.1% in 2007. In the US it forecast a rise to 109.7% from 62.1% over the same period.

Read more...

House prices fall again in August

House prices fell 0.9% last month, following a 0.5% decline in July, Nationwide said, adding that it was the first time that prices had fallen for two consecutive months since February 2009, the BBC reports.

The average house price now stands at just over £166,500. Nationwide said house prices had "essentially stagnated over the summer".

Read more...

Supertax on bankers failed, says Darling

Alistair Darling says Britain's supertax on bankers' bonuses has failed to change the industry's behaviour over pay as "imaginative" financiers found ways to avoid it, the Financial Times reports.

The former Labour Chancellor, who introduced the levy last year amid an unprecedented outcry over bank pay, said he thought it was unlikely the tax would be reinstated by the current Con-Lib coalition government.

However, he warns the industry it faces equally unpopular reforms unless it is more "sensitive" to the public's concerns following the worst financial crisis in generations.

"I think it will be a one-off thing because, frankly, the very people you are after here are very good at getting out of these things and . . . will find all sorts of imaginative ways of avoiding it in the future," Mr Darling said at a Nomura financial services conference.

Read more...