Fitch downgrades Italy and Spain

27 January 2012 Last updated at 20:28 GMT Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has implemented a number of measures to strengthen Italy's finances Fitch ratings agency has downgraded five eurozone economies, including Italy and Spain, citing financial weakness during the debt crisis.

Italy was downgraded two notches to A- from A+, while Spain was also lowered two levels to A from AA-.

Belgium, Slovenia and Cyprus were also downgraded, while Fitch cut its outlook for the Republic of Ireland.

Earlier this month, Standard & Poor's agency downgraded nine eurozone eoconomies, including France.

"Overall, today's rating actions balance the marked deterioration in the economic outlook with both the substantive policy initiatives at the national level to address macro-financial and fiscal imbalances," Fitch said.

The agency had placed the five countries on review for possible downgrades last month.

'Further reforms'

Fitch also made a number of comments on the wider eurozone debt crisis and stressed the importance of closer ties between members.

"In Fitch's opinion, the eurozone crisis will only be resolved as and when there is broad economic recovery," the agency said.

"It is evident that further substantial reforms of the governance of the eurozone will be required to secure economic and financial stability, including greater fiscal integration."

European leaders are attending a summit on Monday as part of their continuing attempts to resolve the crisis.

They are looking to forge closer economic ties between member states by agreeing the details of a treaty imposing strict rules on government spending.

They are also trying to agree the details of a permanent eurozone bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Mechanism, to deal with sovereign debt crises in the future.

Samsung in year end sales boost

27 January 2012 Last updated at 02:24 GMT Samsung expects smartphone sales to grow next year despite tough competition in the market South Korea's Samsung Electronics has announced a 17% rise in profits in the last three months of 2011, as smartphone sales boosted earnings.

Net profit for the quarter was 4 trillion won ($3.6bn; £2.3bn), up from 3.42tn won in the same period the previous year, Samsung said.

However, for the whole of 2011 net income was down 15% compared with 2010.

Samsung's parent group is planning $42bn (£26.8bn) in capital investment this year.

'Solid earnings'

Samsung said that its Galaxy line of mobile devices drove up revenue for the year by almost 40% compared with the previous year.

Despite tough competition from the likes of Apple in the smartphone market, Samsung said that shipments of it smartphones rose by about 30% in the fourth quarter on an annual basis.

"Our telecommunications business continued to post solid earnings with an enhanced line-up of high-end smartphones, resulting in [a] higher average selling price," said Robert Yi, senior vice president and head of investor relations, in the earnings statement.

James Rooney, Market Force: "Samsung is a very strong and diversified player"

Looking ahead to this year, Samsung is forecasting increased demand for entry-level smartphones and tablet PCs, as well as consistent demand for feature phones.

Panel problems

The company said it will spend 25tn won in capital expenditure this year on its chip and panel businesses, according to the statement.

However, that panel display business, which makes flat panels for TVs and computer monitors, did not perform as well in 2011.

Samsung said it had an operating loss of 220bn won, compared with an operating profit of 100bn won a year earlier.

Despite that Samsung announced its latest line of TVs, which are controlled by voice commands and hand gestures, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month.

Tax deadline put back by strike

26 January 2012 Last updated at 14:23 GMT The PCS union is planning a walkout at HMRC on 31 January No fines will be handed out to anyone who submits their self-assessment tax returns online in the first two days of February.

The official deadline for submitting forms is 31 January, but a planned strike for that day is set to cause last-minute disruption.

So HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has effectively put back the deadline by two days.

More than two million people have still to file their returns online.

The tax authority has changed the procedure after earlier telling the BBC that there would be leniency owing to the strike.

The public sector union, the PCS, is planning strikes at call centres and inquiry offices to protest against the appointment of private companies to run call-handling trials in two contact centres.

Fines

The countdown to the tax return deadline has started in earnest. On Tuesday, 182,530 forms were filed online.

HMRC is introducing a much tougher system of fines this year. The £100 penalty will apply whether or not there is tax owed.

Penalties can mount up if a taxpayer neglects to send in a form, to £1,300 after six months and £1,600 after a year.

Even so, 600,000 of the nine million people who have to fill in the returns were expected to put off submitting them until 31 January.

The deadline for paper returns was on 31 October, but the online deadline is later

On past form, 15% per cent of them, about 90,000, will ring for help and may find it impossible to get an answer, owing to the strike on deadline day.

"We have always been very clear that we want the returns - not the penalties. For that reason, we do not want anyone who cannot get through for help and advice on 31 January to be disadvantaged in any way," said HMRC's acting-director of general personal tax, Stephen Banyard.

David Gauke, exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said: "This strike could have caused thousands of people to incur fines, so I am pleased that HMRC has taken this commonsense approach.

"The government does not want anyone trying to file their tax return on time to be unfairly penalised because they were unable to get through for help and advice on the 31st."

Those who have tax to pay will not face any interest on payments made on 1 and 2 February.

Appeals

Anyone who files after 2 February will be fined £100, although the normal appeals procedure is in place.

This requires taxpayers with a "reasonable excuse" to write to their tax office quoting their unique taxpayer reference. They should not wait for the penalty notice.

Examples given of valid excuses which would normally be accepted include the loss of documents through theft, fire or flood and the onset of a life-threatening illness.

Those choosing to send in tax returns on paper were required to submit them by 31 October. Some 34,000 penalty notices were sent out after the deadline passed.

Expert warns of ground move risks

Relocating to a new stadium would not necessarily guarantee Lincoln City's future, says a football finance expert.

Chairman Bob Dorrian said the Blue Square Bet Premier club would consider moving from Sincil Bank to a new ground with improved commercial facilities.

But Rob Wilson of Sheffield Hallam University told BBC Lincolnshire: "The problem is that moving grounds comes at a significant cost.

"If the money's not there to finance it the club could end up worse off."

Wilson says a number of factors need to be taken into account, including the value of the land currently occupied by the club and the size of its fanbase.

"Moving to a bigger ground will allow you to generate more revenue via ticket sales, it becomes more attractive to sponsors and you can generate more through the hire of the facilities," he said.

Continue reading the main story

Even if they gained successive promotions would they increase their fanbase and what would the value of the investment be to them?

Rob Wilson Football finance expert

"It can work but the question is how much money would they get for the current ground and the land around it?

"When Southampton moved from the Dell to St. Mary's, they got good money for that piece of real estate and converted it into a residential area, and they were able to build a bigger stadium with much better access.

"But Lincoln's average gate last season was around 3,000 and even if they gained successive promotions would they increase their fanbase and what would the value of the investment be to them?"

And Wilson cited stricken Darlington, who like the Imps are in non league's top-flight, as a prime example of the pitfalls of over-ambition.

"Darlington are having serious issues at the moment and those problems have come about because of a ground move," he continued.

"They're in a 20,000-seater stadium, it's purpose built and has all of the commercial revenue angles covered, but they don't get enough people through the gate to cover the running costs of it."

Marston's sees 'strong' trading

27 January 2012 Last updated at 08:14 GMT Marston's runs more than 2,000 pubs across the UK and brews Pedigree and Banks's ales Pub and brewing firm Marston's has reported "strong" trading over the Christmas period, with higher sales of food and drink.

The company, which runs more than 2,000 pubs, said its managed pubs' sales were strongest, up by 5% in the 16 weeks to January 21 compared with a year ago.

Food sales grew by 5.5%, outstripping drink sales, which rose by 4.8%.

Across the company's leased, tenanted and franchised estates, profits for the period were 3% above last year.

It said that Marston's beer brands, including Pedigree and Banks's, outperformed the market with own-brewed beer volumes 2% above last year.

On Thursday, Mitchells and Butlers - which runs pub chains including All Bar One, Harvester, Toby Carvery and O'Neills - said its sales over the Christmas and New Year period were 4.4% higher than a year ago.

In November last year, Marston's said it would take on 1,000 new staff this year as part of its expansion plans which include building 25 new pubs a year.

Marston's chief executive, Ralph Findlay said: "We have a robust strategy in place, aligned to today's trading environment and continue to make good progress on our new build programme, creating around 1,000 new jobs in 2012 and each year thereafter."

Retail sales 'falling in January'

26 January 2012 Last updated at 14:28 GMT Shoppers reined in spending across the board at the start of the New Year, said the CBI Retail sales fell in January as shoppers reined in their spending at the start of the year, the CBI says.

Its monthly survey of the distributive trades found 44% of retailers said sales volumes were down on a year ago.

With 22% saying they had seen sales rise in January, there was a negative balance of 22% of retailers, the lowest since March 2009.

Retailers expect sales volumes to continue to fall in February, albeit it at a slower pace than this month.

They reported January sales as disappointing for the time of year.

Hardware and DIY stores gave the gloomiest report among the retail sector, with online and mail-order faring the best.

Recent weeks have seen a number of high street names closing stores and appointing administrators, including Past Times, La Senza and Pumpkin Patch.

Others, including WH Smith and HMV have seen sales or profits slip.

Meanwhile, food outlets, including Asda, McDonald's and Subway are expanding and creating jobs.

Ian McCafferty, the CBI's chief economic adviser, said: "Shoppers have reined in spending across the board at the start of the New Year after taking advantage of early discounting last month, which boosted pre-Christmas sales.

"Family budgets are under continuing pressure with inflation still high and wage increases modest."

Howard Archer, chief economist at Global Insight, said the findings pointed to another quarter of weak economic growth: "Given the key role of consumer spending, the CBI survey heightens concern that the economy is set for further contraction in the first quarter of 2012 after GDP fell 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011, thereby putting the UK back into recession."

He added that poor sales were likely to lead to further falls in the rate of inflation.

Olympic Village site handed over

27 January 2012 Last updated at 10:36 GMT The BBC's Tim Muffett had a look inside the athletes' apartments

London 2012 organisers have taken control of the Olympic Village site in a ceremony marking six months until the start of the Games.

The village's 2,818 flats will now be fitted out to cater for 16,000 athletes and officials from 200 countries.

As well as 64,000 bed sheets, the village will need 11,000 sofas, 170,000 coat hangers and 5,000 toilet brushes.

Organisers have also revealed details of the Games' opening ceremony which will be watched by one billion people.

Attention to detail

London 2012 Chairman Seb Coe and its chief executive Paul Deighton have been setting out what the next six months holds as the final preparations for the Olympics are laid down.

Lord Coe said: "It's a heavy weight of responsibility but a fabulous opportunity"

Mr Deighton said the challenge was to get everything done on time because "27 July is the mother of all immovable deadlines".

He said the next six months would be all about attention to detail, focusing on training and mobilising people who will make the Games happen, testing and putting materials in place.

He said organisers Locog would also be building the excitement and helping people to be a part of what will be "the greatest thing this city has seen in their lifetimes".

Locog have put together a creative team of British talent to oversee the ceremonies, with Oscar-winning film director Danny Boyle as artistic director for the Olympics opening ceremony and Take That's creative director Kim Gavin as artistic director for the Olympic and Paralympic closing ceremonies.

Mr Boyle and the opening ceremony's executive producer Stephen Daldry have been talking about the task of putting on a show with a 20,000 strong cast.

Meanwhile, Martin Green, Locog's Head of Ceremonies, has told the BBC it was not the organisers' intention to keep details of the events secret.

60,000 meals

"We want the country to be engaged with it," he told BBC East's London 2012 correspondent Shaun Peel.

"We want them to come along on the journey."

Friday's event marked the handover of control of the Olympic Village - based on the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London - to Locog from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA).

Details of the Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies are to be revealed before the Games

John Nicholson, from the ODA, said the overall project involved 62 buildings, 3,000 apartments, a polyclinic and a school.

"The idea is to try and ensure that we're combining the requirements of the athletes during the Games with the requirements of the local community in the legacy after the Games," he told the BBC.

The village will serve up to 60,000 meals each day from a 24-hour restaurant with 5,000 seats and food carts dotted around the site.

It is expected to get through 25,000 loaves of bread, 232 tonnes of potatoes, 75,000 litres of milk and more than 330 tonnes of fruit and vegetables during the Games.

Its main social area - the Village Plaza - will have shops and services for athletes and guests including a cafe, general store, bank, beauty & grooming salon, internet lounge, London 2012 shop and entertainment centre.

More volunteers needed

The ODA said the project - which started in June 2008 - involved:

Building apartments with courtyards, gardens and balconies in 11 residential plots, as well as landscaping throughout the villageBuilding the Chobham Academy, an education campus with places for 1,800 students and a state-of-the-art health clinicProviding work for more than 16,500 people

After the Games the village will be turned into a part-affordable housing and part private-owned community known as East Village.

Locog chairman Seb Coe said the Olympic Village would provide athletes "with a home-from-home as they prepare for one of the biggest sporting moments of their lives".

It is estimated London 2012's opening and closing ceremonies will be watched by four billion TV viewers, which advertising industry experts say is worth up to £5bn in airtime exposure.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt last month defended a doubling of the budget for the Olympic ceremonies to £81m as "an extraordinary business opportunity" likely to attract foreign investment.

Locog said last month more than 10,000 would-be performers had auditioned for the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies and called for more - particularly male - performers to come forward.

They said dancers, actors, percussionists and general all-round performers would have a role in the ceremonies, and that previous performance experience was not required.

Mr Green - who choreographed the montage at the close of Beijing 2008 featuring David Beckham, Leona Lewis, guitarist Jimmy Page and a double decker bus - is charged with delivering the opening and closing ceremonies of both the Olympics and Paralympics, as well as all the medal ceremonies and the torch relay.

He said some of the content of the show would be revealed over the coming months, but some surprises would be kept for the night.