Consumers gloomy while business outlook improves
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE fell to its lowest level in more than a year, according to the latest Consumer and Business Confidence Index numbers for the fourth quarter of 2005.

John Jackson seminar this Friday
THE YEAR 2005 proved to be a difficult one for the economy and investors in stock market but great for real estate investors. Although it started off promisingly in January and maintained buoyancy to April, interest in the market for most of 2005...

November deficit leads past October
FOR THE month of November 2005, the fiscal deficit was $2,563 million - a far cry from Government's original budget projection for November of a $100 million surplus. Of considerable concern is the fact that the November deficit...

Lottomatica to buy GTech
MILAN (Reuters): ITALY'S LOTTOMATICA said on Tuesday it would buy 100 per cent of United States lottery company GTech for ¤4 billion (US$4.8 billion) in cash to create the world's biggest lottery operator.

Guardian Life boosting staff training
GUARDIAN LIFE Limited will be using the services of the more qualified employees to teach their less qualified co-workers during working hours. To ease concerns of after-work stress and travel time to get to classes...

A competitor for the National Water Commission (NWC)?
IN THE 1970s, the Jamaican economy was characterised by a few large government monopolies and almost every market was regulated. Competition was implicitly discouraged as resources were not allowed to flow freely to their most productive...

Financial companies biggest losers on Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE)
OF THE ten companies that recorded the biggest losses on the Jamaica Stock Exchange for 2005 almost half of them were in the finance sector. It was a tough year for market players who invested in Capital and Credit Merchant Bank...