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THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL Bank (ECB) broke with its policy of not speculating on future actions after it declared it will keep record low interest rates for an ‘extended period’.
At ECB’s monthly meeting, President Mario Draghi said that ‘market volatility’ was the reason behind the decision to offer ‘forward guidance’. The ECB kept its base rate at the record low level of 0.5 per cent with Reuters reporting that he gave no specific indication of the ECB’s plan for the rate over the next year, “It’s not six months, it’s not 12 months. It’s an extended period of time.”
To add to the surprise of the meeting, Draghi added that not only would rates remain low but he said the council discussed the option of cutting them further. The poor growth figures outlined by Draghi left no doubt as to why the ECB discussed taking this bold step.
Real GDP declined by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, following a contraction of 0.6 per cent in the last quarter of 2012. At the same time, labour market conditions remain weak.
The announcement from Draghi came soon after new Bank of England governor Mark Carney made a similar pledge about its future rate. At his first committee meeting, Carney’s statement said that market assumptions of an imminent rate rise were ‘not warranted’.
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If a pre school is short 1 plaster in a box of 10,thats an automatic fail in 1st aid compliance on the report,the current report will just say 1st aid fail,it does say its because its short of a plaster. Thats hardly fair,i hope the new reports actuly report the proper issues discovered in pre schools that are not up to proper standards. Will the new laws assist the low paid staff with proper working hours,pay and entitlements ??
Couldn’t agree more. I personally know of a case where the preschool inspector complained there were too many varieties of plasters & dressings. All the new regulations will not prevent nasty people who don’t like children been mean to them like we saw on the Prime Time programme.
New legislation is all well & good. Maintaining appropriate carer:child ratios, training staff properly & paying them a credible wage is more paramount, imo…
Perhaps some regulation for childminders too, who look after children in their own home. I have come across many wonderful childminders who treat the children they look after impeccably, however they are not all the same. This is a largely unregulated area and I feel there should be some sort of inspections/reports similar to the UK.
No one cares for a
Child better that his or her parent but unfortunately during the credit tiger we lost the run of ourselves and required 2
Parents working to support ridiculous mortgages and the introduction of the chain crèche with high running costs etc
The whole country needs an overhaul not just childcare and plenty of crèche’s who pay staff fairly and treat children well they are just harder to find because the pull of the larger crèche with the so called reputation is a greater pull ….inspectors need to inspect what’s really important not tick a flip board actually sit in the crèche for few days to observe properly
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