Changes to indexation arrangements for pensions – sidelined and set to be replaced Pension rises were to be indexed to inflation rather than a combination of inflation, the pensioner living cost index and as a percentage of average weekly male earnings.
In contrast, consumer confidence in the US is rising; for example, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index was up from 40.9 in October, to 55.2 in November to 64.5 in December.
The good news was already "baked in," an analyst tells Reuters: U.S. stock index futures fell Thursday as investors digested a deal agreed by lawmakers in Washington a day earlier to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling in order to avoid a debt default.
The climate change performance index ranked Denmark as the best-performing country in the world, followed by Sweden and Britain.
Worryingly for both Labour and the Conservatives, immigration topped the Ipsos Mori year in review index - and concern for this issue is up across all analysed groups.
In the latest ComRes/ITV News index, the NHS has overtaken immigration as the top concern for voters.
Sierra Leone is ranked 177th of the 187 countries in the UN human development index.
The group's "renters' index", which compiles findings from the past five years, allots its bottom three slots to Westminster (Conservative), Merton (now Labour but under no overall control until last year) and Hammersmith and Fulham (now Labour, but Tory until last year).
And indeed, that happened in both 2010 and again this year: the "wisdom" index outperformed the conventional final polls on both occasions.
On Monday, Wall Street was rattled by the Institute of Supply Management's (ISM) monthly index of the health of the manufacturing sector.
According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which publishes a Cyprus property price index, the average cost of a three-bed house in Paphos fell from €460,000 in December 2009 to €343,000 in December 2014, a 25% drop.
