The UK comprises just 17 per cent of The Body Shop's operating profits.Meanwhile, last week's move into Russia showed that the retailer is confident about its prospects abroad. It has decided to open eight shops in the former Soviet country. Analysts expect today's results will see The Body Shop boast of strong sales growth in the Far East, Middle East and some of the major European markets. Any drop in pre-tax profits will be because of the costs associated with the acquisition of various franchise operations.Elsewhere in the sector, there was yet more gloom for investors. Next dropped 51p to 1,302p after JP Morgan warned that the clothes retailer is likely to be suffering as the recovery at Marks & Spencer continues to accelerate.Going forward, Next's performance looks likely to be further eroded because its rival is planning to cut prices by 10 per cent. The Body Shop finished 8.75p higher at 209.75p as analysts agreed there is a fair chance that things at the group are quite rosy. Even Germany would be hard pressed to justify Japan's zero interest-rate policy.j.warner independent.co.uk.
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I think Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, is wrong. Or rather, he is right about most things in the world of global economics but he is wrong about the balance of risk in the UK economy between growth and inflation. Accordingly, his resistance to further cuts in interest rates is unwarranted. In a speech on Tuesday evening, he provided a very thoughtful insight into the medium-term outlook for the UK economy. His starting point was that the business cycle still existed.
Since 1992, the UK economy had experienced a Great Stability: there was a "nice" decade, with "nice" standing for non-inflationary, consistently expansionary economic growth.. Despite the gloom on the high street, City punters piled intoThe Body Shop shares betting that today's interim figures from the beauty-products retailer will buck the dire trend in the sector. Yet the shock therapy of Thatcher's Britain is not the Japanese way, and remarkably, the country seems to be easing its way out of its economic doldrums without the pain of mass unemployment, multiple bankruptcy and social division.There may indeed by lessons for continental Europe in Japan's economic revival, though the parallels shouldn't be taken too far Japan had price deflation. Many parts of Europe still have quite high levels of price inflation, making the Bank of Japan's experiment in monetary easing virtually impossible for the European Central Bank.
