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Business - Need to Know

Afternoon Edition

The German parliament has, as expected, voted to approve Greece's four-month bailout extension. Perhaps less expected was how overwhelmingly it was passed - with support from Angela Merkel's coalition, 542 MPs backed the extension, with 32 voting against and 13 abstensions.

This was the biggest majority for any eurozone rescue package, Reuters noted.

"This is not about new billions for Greece, not about changing this programme," Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, assured parliament ahead of the vote. "It's about providing additional time to complete this programme successfully."

With that last remaining obstacle jumped, the sticking plaster has been applied, for now.

For full reaction and developments log on to our Business Now live blog.

There’s further evidence of a property slowdown in the UK. In January, house prices rose 6.7 per cent year-on-year, down from 7 per cent growth a month earlier. That marks the fifth consecutive month of declining house price growth. The average price of a house in England and Wales is now £179,492.

In London, house prices declined 0.2 per cent in January from a month earlier, with the average property in the capital falling to £458,283 from £464,936 at the end of 2014.

The only other regions to report a fall in prices were the northeast (-0.2 per cent) and Yorkshire and the Humber (-1.5 per cent). The northwest enjoyed the biggest monthly rise, up 2.6 per cent.

The boss of Lloyds Banking Group has “accepted” that his bonus is very big. Antonio Horta-Osório will receive £7.4 million from his long-term incentive plan, which is paying out next month for performance since 2012. In total, Mr Horta-Osório will receive almost £11 million this year. Katherine Griffiths, our Banking Editor, has more here.

Finally, in London, the Boris bikes are getting a makeover. The familiar sight of the blue, Barclays-sponsored bikes, will soon be turning red after Santander took over the sponsorship and renamed them Santander Cycles. All 11,500 bikes will be turned red and white, as will the 728 docking stations.

Boris Johnson, the mayor, joked that the makeover would bring the bikes in line with the traditional red of London buses, phone boxes and post boxes. Hilarious.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter for regular updates throughout the day - @becclancy.

Have a great weekend. We’ll be back on Monday.

Rebecca Clancy
Breaking News Editor, Business
The Times
rebecca.clancy@thetimes.co.uk

Thurrock, in Essex, saw the biggest annual house price increase in January with a 16 per cent rise. Merthyr Tydfil, in south Wales, saw the greatest fall (5.2 per cent), according to the Land Registry's House Price Index

It’s been a subdued end to a record-breaking week in the stock market thus far. The Footsie, higher than ever yesterday, has drifted 9 points lower to 6,941 in light trading.

Again, company updates and broker research is moving prices. IAG, the owner of British Airways, is up 17p at 576.5p and at a record after lifting its profit forecast for this year by more than a fifth.

And after its boardroom shake-up yesterday, Standard Chartered is a further 47p higher at £10.23.

Gary Parkinson
Markets Reporter

The American government offers a snapshot of the state of the economy with its second estimate of growth for the final quarter of 2014. Economists expect the Gross Domestic Product figures, published at 1.30pm GMT today, to show an annual growth rate of 2.1 per cent in the three months to December 2014. That’s a downward revision of the initial 2.6 per cent estimate published last month and less than half of the third quarter’s blowout reading of 5 per cent. The deceleration probably reflects an upturn in imports, a downturn in federal government spending, and falls in non-residential fixed investment and exports.

The University of Michigan's final February reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment is likely to come in at 94.0, above the preliminary February reading of 93.6. It’s out at 3pm GMT.

In a separate report, the National Association of Realtors issues its January Pending Home Sales Index at 3pm GMT. The consensus estimate is for a 2.2 per cent increase.

Markets: Futures suggest a negative day on Wall Street. The Dow Jones is expected to open down 15 points at 18,188, the S&P to fall 3.5 points to 2,106.50 and the Nasdaq to drop 5.25 points to 4,456.50.

Alexandra Frean
US Business Editor
@freanie

I fully accept this is a very high number, but I would expect in this country people focus on pay for performance
Antonio Horta-Osório, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, on his £11m salary, which includes a £7.4m bonus
Today's FTSE 100 risers and fallers
Up (%)
Standard Chartered 4.86
Associated British Foods 3.24
International Consolidated Airlines Group 2.94
Kingfisher 2.63
InterContinental Hotels Group 2.04
* As at noon
Down (%)
Intu Properties 4.02
Royal Bank of Scotland 2.56
Weir Group 2.13
Fresnillo 1.88
BG Group 1.71
* As at noon
The Markets Today
FTSE 100 6,941.39 -0.12%
FTSE 250 17,228.39 -0.12%
Cac 4,920.66 0.2%
Dax 11,324.63 -0.02%
Brent Crude 61.61 1.48%
Gold 1,207.62 -0.16%
GBP/USD 1.5428 0.15%
GBP/euro 1.3744 -0.07%
10Y Gilt 108.480 -0.39%
* As at noon
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