REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL SAYS GARTMORE

Gartmore fund managers Roger Guy and Guillaume Rambourg discern plenty of “reasons to be cheerful” in the European investment sector – lowest ever recorded unemployment rate (6.9%) since 1993, growth of eurozone GDP of 0.3% in the second quarter of 2007 and fears of an interest rate hike receding. “Evidence suggests that advanced economies are growing healthily, particularly in Europe,” said the pair.

OU PRETTY THINGS

More than 2,000 people improved their financial literacy by studying the OU’s You and Your Money course, which is being brought back for a third time in November. Course chairman Ian Fribbance said: “Just a glimpse at this week’s front pages proves that the need for financial understanding has never been higher.”

B&B AT DECENT RATES

Savers running scared of highly leveraged banks (i.e. banks that borrow a lot like Northern Rock) have fled to the safety of less exposed institutions with their cash in the past few days. Bradford & Bingley has been a major beneficiary and with an account paying 6.26% you can see why. National Savings & Investments, another group for which I have a lot of admiration (you really do feel it’s the saver’s friend), has also seen increased business. As long as these two savings accounts providers keep up this good work and avoid complacency they look set to benefit for a while yet from savers who just want a fair deal.