Investors looking into a black hole

THIS WEEK:INVESTORS IN collapsed investment firm Custom House Capital have until this Friday to put in a claim to the Investor Compensation Company Limited (ICCL).

Liquidator KPMG is administering the compensation claims submitted under the ICCL and, as of March 7th, it had received 608 investor claims.

However, investors hoping for a big payout of the funds they lost in Custom House’s Ponzi scheme are unlikely to find much comfort in the process.

While the ICCL will pay investors 90 per cent of the money they have lost, it is only up to a limit of €20,000. Moreover, the process can take some time, as investors of WR Morrogh discovered.

Clients of the Cork stockbroker, which collapsed in 2001, were still receiving compensation more than seven years later.

If you cannot get around to making a claim this week, the ICCL can continue to accept claim forms after March 23rd, but the Central Bank of Ireland will have to be satisfied that the claimant was unable to make the claim in advance of Friday’s deadline before the claim can be processed.

Osborne's stark choice - demolish the deficit or build the economy?

THE BRITISH chancellor of the Exchequer faces a tough choice in his budget on Wednesday.

Does George Osborne continue on the path of austerity which is being pursued by so many other European countries in order to reduce the budget deficit or does he make a break and try and bring some growth back to the British economy?

Businesses will be hoping that, at the very least, the budget will allow for some targeted incentives aimed at boosting investment, such as in the area of capital allowances for infrastructure investment, or employment incentivisation.

For individuals however, the budget is unlikely to bring much good news. It is expected that there will be some restrictions to the pension relief limits on the cards, while a reduction in the 50 per cent upper rate of income tax is not predicted.

From the Republic’s perspective, any changes to Britain’s corporation tax regime will be watched closely.

Its headline rate is due to drop to 25 per cent on April 1st, and then down to 23 per cent by 2014, but speculation is mounting that the rate may actually plunge to 20 per cent.

CSO figures expected to show slight decline in economic growth for 2011

FULL-YEAR economic growth figures for 2011 are expected to show GDP growth of less than 1 per cent for the year when they are released by the Central Statistics Office next Thursday, with a slight decline or broadly flat out-turn for the fourth quarter.

While “harsh winds” globally are expected to make the Q4 figure quite weak, KCB Bank economist Austin Hughes (right) says the extent to which it happens it will be interesting, as will any signs that the decline in domestic demand is easing or if exports are succumbing to the global downturn.

Any follow-through with the recently published employment figures for last year will also be watched closely, he says.

Those figures showed some improvement in the fourth quarter. The national accounts should show whether this jobs growth is happening at a time of minimal improvement in economic activity.

Hughes does caution however, that the figures can fluctuate from quarter to quarter and signs of a “fragile economy easily blown off course”. “I think what economists have come to expect is the unexpected.”