Podcasts

Scotland's Finance Secretary Derek Mackay has pledged a funding increase of £240m for local services as he set out his draft budget. Mr Mackay also confirmed he will not change income tax rates or bands. Those were two of the headlines from the Scottish Budget, and to bring us up to date with this, Share Radio’s Scotland Correspondent Maurice Smith joined Nigel Cassidy and Sara Sjölin.

High profile executives, including Microsoft's Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, are investing one billion dollars in a fund for clean energy tech and addressing climate change. They're being joined by others such as Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Alibaba chairman Jack Ma. They hope to increase financing to emerging energy research, and help hit emissions goals set in the Paris Summit. Dr. Charles Donovan is Director of Imperial College London's Centre for Climate Finance, and he joined Share Radio Breakfast to discuss.

Internet giant Yahoo has revealed more than one billion user accounts may be affected by a hacking attack. This marks the biggest cyber hack to date, with the attack dating back to 2013. It’s separate from a data loss in 2014 when 500 million accounts were accessed. The news comes at a critical juncture for Yahoo, who is trying to sell its core businesses to the telecoms and media company Verizon. Matt Cox spoke to Peter Church, Counsel specialising in data privacy at law firm Linklaters, to find out the consequences.

Health and wellness is tipped as one of the big travel trends for 2017, and this is especially the case with luxury travellers. To find out more about this Simon Rose and Sarah Tucker were joined by AyseEbru Aksoy of Rixos hotel group.

This week on The Share Radio Travel Guide Simon Rose was joined travel journalist and author Sarah Tucker. They look at the launch of the world's longest non-stop route, what the travel predictions are for 2017, how you can celebrate New Years Eve twice (for a very hefty pricetag) Also, there'll be an insider's guide to New York.

The appeal of Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts saw retail sales volumes rise by almost 6% in November, compared with the same time last year. However, higher fuel costs meant the rise was not as strong as in October, when annual retail sales growth hit a 14-year high of 7.2%. Monthly sales in November increased 0.2%, compared to October's increase of 1.8%. Olivia Demetriades spoke to Craig Skelton, retail & consumer partner at PwC. She began by asking about last month's growth.

Time now for our weekly catch up with the team at Moneyweek magazine. This week, Ed Bowsher was joined by Merryn Somerset Webb, editor in chief at MoneyWeek. They discuss: the European Central Bank's monetary policy, and the gift that has the use of a pension - but is much nicer to look at.

The insurance market Lloyd's of London is now the first major city business to announce it is preparing plans to set up a subsidiary on mainland europe. This will allow Lloyds to continue operating in the EU even if UK firms lose their so-called 'passport' rights after Brexit. For more on this, Share Radio's Ed Bowsher was joined on the line by Philip Alexander, Regulation Editor at Risk.net

Plenty of interest rate decisions to tuck in to today: whilst the Fed has raised rates citing the strength of the US economy, the Bank of England has been more pessimistic. Base rates have been kept on hold, with Carney warning that signs of slowdown in economic activity have been detected. Is Brexit finally taking its toll? Share Radio's Ed Bowsher was joined by Jasper Lawler, Senior Market Analyst at London Capital Group to discuss the top stories shaping markets today.

Businesses across the euro zone ended the year on an upbeat note. This is according to data that showed they achieved solid growth and raised prices at the steepest rate since the middle of 2011. IHS Markit's Euro Zone Flash Composite Purchasing Managers' Index, seen as a good overall growth indicator, matched November's 53.9, which was the highest reading this year and comfortably above the 50-point level that indicates growth. To discuss the findings in more detail, Simon was joined by Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit.