Author: Jordan

Libya – Mohamed Al-Naam, spokesman for the Municipal Guard, announced that 1,272 cases were registered in the first half of this year. He said the cases varied and included health violations, building code violations, complaints, and reports exchanged between citizens.Speaking to Libya Al-Ahrar TV, Al-Naam explained that the number and nature of cases differ from last year based on location, timing, and type of violation. He expects the number to change in the second half of the year, especially as more cases are referred to the public prosecutor, including cases related to pesticides.Al-Naam said that some of the cases the…

Wise introduced its multi-currency travel card in India today, entering the market at a time when the country is reporting its highest outbound travel numbers and moving into the peak travel period. India recorded 3.89 crore overseas departures in 2024, led by leisure trips, visits to family abroad and business travel. Overseas spending has risen sharply as well. Wise said it will also be waiving its ₹460 card issuance fee for customers who sign up before 10 February 2026. The card does not carry annual fees, subscription charges or inactivity penalties.Wise says its new travel card uses the mid-market exchange…

Maybe: Figure 1: Imports of computers, computer accessories and semiconductors (blue, left log scale), and investment in informationn equipment and software (red, right log scale), both in bn.Ch.2017$ SAAR. Source: BEA, 2026Q2 advance release, and author’s calculations. Over this period, one can reject at the 6% level the null hypothesis that the growth rate of imports doesn’t Granger cause the growth rate of investment, but not the reverse. Interestingly, once lagged imports do not seem to correlate with investment, so imports do not seem to be a reliable leading indicator at the quarterly frequency. That being said, it’s interesting to…

Weekly Mortgage Rates Ease as Inflation Loses Some Heat Newsbug.info Source link

In the buy-to-let sector, 8,390 mortgages were in arrears of 2.5% or more, down 6% quarter-on-quarter. The lightest arrears band accounted for 2,980 BTL mortgages, a 7% reduction on the previous quarter. BTL arrears represented 0.44% of all outstanding buy-to-let mortgages. The latest UK Finance figures also showed a decline in possession volumes in Q2. A total of 1,150 homeowner mortgaged properties were taken into possession during the quarter, 8% fewer than in Q1 2026 and 14% fewer than in the same period a year earlier. In the BTL segment, 630 properties were taken into possession, down 22% quarter-on-quarter and 20% year-on-year. UK…

Once upon a time, Amaze was a must-have card for any miles chaser, allowing users to stack regular credit card rewards with excellent exchange rates, 1% cashback on virtually everything, and use cases that went far beyond just overseas spending (wink wink). Demand was so intense that Instarem struggled to ship out physical cards in time for year-end VTL travel in 2021. Nothing good lasts forever, however, and over the years, many of those benefits were “enhanced” away. DBS and UOB removed rewards for Amaze, exclusions were added for cashback, cashback was replaced with InstaPoints, InstaPoints were excluded for card-linked transactions,…

Paragon Bank has refreshed its buy-to-let mortgage range, introducing rates from 3.55% and products at up to 80% loan-to-value (LTV). The range includes 2- and 5-year fixed-rate mortgages at 60%, 70%, 75% and 80% LTV for property purchases and remortgages. Products are available through the lender’s Core and Tailored propositions to individual and limited company landlords across England, Scotland and Wales. The Tailored range supports buy-to-let applications that fall outside Paragon’s standard lending criteria and may require a more individual underwriting approach. GREEN MORTGAGE PRICING Within the lender’s single self-contained property range at 75% LTV, 2-year fixed rates start at…

Consumer prices rose by 3.4% over the past year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.The agency’s monthly report is the culmination of a massive data collection exercise to compile the familiar Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation for a representative sample of household outlays. Inflation was in line with expectations and declined slightly from the 3.5% rate for the 12 months ending in June and 4.2% in May.The 3.4% inflation rate is meaningful to individual families as a measure of how much more they are paying for everyday items. But it also poses a challenge for policymakers at…

Prices, rents, investors, promoters, funds, local accommodation or interest rates are discussed. We almost always look for the cause within the sector itself. But perhaps this is precisely the biggest mistake in the analysis: housing is not just an isolated market; it is an advanced indicator of a country’s ability to plan, decide and execute. Real estate rarely creates a country’s major economic problems; it exposes, in a concrete way, the imbalances that already exist in productivity, institutions and trust.Those who follow this market daily know that a house is not born when the work begins. Long before a building…

Products are available up to 80% loan-to-value (LTV) for both purchase and remortgage cases. Paragon Bank refreshed its buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage range with rates from 3.55%.  Products are available up to 80% loan-to-value (LTV) for both purchase and remortgage cases.  The range covers 2-year and 5-year fixed-rate deals at 60%, 70%, 75% and 80% LTV, open to individual and limited company landlords in England, Scotland and Wales. Within the single self-contained range at 75% LTV, 2-year fixed rates start from 3.55% on green mortgage products for properties with energy performance certificate (EPC) ratings of A to C.  Similar products for…