fiscal year

The British economy has taken further blows from the recession, with official data showing public finances posting a record deficit and retail sales sinking in May.

The weight of lower tax revenues, increasing unemployment and poor consumer sentiment crushed the battered economy. As the Office of National Statistics (ONS) uncovered, Britain`s public deficit came up to a record STG19.9 billion ($41.1 billion) in May.

On Wednesday Australia and New Zealand Banking Group reported a significant drop in its net profit and cash profit during the fiscal first half. The company explained the decline by burgeoning bad debt on its ledger.

ANZ Group said that for the six months ended March 31 its cash profit, which is a closely watched metric for banks, decreased to 954 million Australian dollars ($673 million) from 1.67 billion Australian dollars at the same time last year.

According to the data released on Wednesday Japan saw a horrific increase of corporate bankruptcies during the fiscal year ended March 31. Meantime the number of companies to go out of the business was the highest in any year since the end of World War II.

The reports based on the data provided by Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. revealed that bankruptcies rose by 12% to 16,146 during the fiscal year, the third straight year of increase.