Let’s face it: Profiteering is feeding the inflation beast, not just pay rises April 4, 2023 Inflation is a pernicious beast that is plainly bad for people and businesses. It can ease governments’ debt burdens by (artificially) boosting tax revenues, but that can lead to severe bouts of price rises that, often, lead to societal decay. So it’s easy to see why policymakers in the UK are sweating over the rate [...]
UK 2023 economic outlook brightens but ‘big gaps’ remain, Deutsche Bank says April 3, 2023 The UK’s economy will to flatline rather than contract in 2023, according to analysts from Deutsche Bank, as last week’s upgrade to GDP for the final quarter of 2022 will likely have a positive knock-on effect for the remainder of this year. The ONS revised its initial GDP reading for the fourth quarter of 2022 [...]
UK economy on tightrope between recession and growth as exports slip but inflationary pressure eases in March April 3, 2023 Manufacturing fell in March, although fears the UK economy is entering a recession may be premature as inflation eased and average supplier lead times improved. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global /CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 47.9 in March, down from February’s seven-month high of 49.3 and an earlier flash estimate of 48.0. [...]
Speedy rate hikes could knock shaky UK economy, former BoE chief economist warns April 2, 2023 Former chief economist of the Bank of England Andy Haldane has cautioned his old colleagues against raising rates too fast, warning it might unsettle an economy that is on “unsteady legs”. “I think given the extent of tightening we had during the course of last year, and the early part of this, and given the [...]
Banks, inflation, recession, gold AND Ocado: Five lessons the markets taught us this week March 31, 2023 It’s spring. The days are longer, the sun is shining, and fears about the imminent implosion of the global financial system are fading, for now anyway. Markets appeared to calm down after several weeks of banking-related aftershocks and both the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 were on course to end the week on a positive [...]
Recession? Five graphs that show where the UK economy is and where it is heading March 31, 2023 Are we in a recession? Aren’t we in a recession? Are we headed into a recession? At this point, who knows. At the start of the year, everyone said “yes definitely, and a bad one”. Now, those projections look a bit overcooked. Essentially, it’s on a knife edge. City A.M. takes a look at the [...]
FTSE 100 live: Ocado steams ahead again as analysts warn banks have long road to recovery March 30, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 scaled higher today lifted by middle class favourite and online supermarket Ocado extending its strong rally this week. The capital’s premier index climbed 0.32 per cent to 7,588.65 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more in tune with the health of the UK economy, bumped 0.73 per cent [...]
Labour and Tory governments shun £500bn of investment for UK economy since 2000 March 30, 2023 Britain has missed out on £500bn of public investment this century as a result of successive Labour and Conservative governments trimming capital spending to balance the books, a new report out today claims. Since the turn of the millennium, the UK has injected around 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) of public investment [...]
FTSE 100 close: Ocado delivers bumper gains while Next zips lower March 29, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 was hoisted higher by the UK’s largest retailers surging today, except high street bellwether Next, which stumbled badly. The capital’s premier index bumped more than one per cent to 7,564.28 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, surged 1.28 per [...]
Bank of England backs ‘substantial’ LDI cash buffer boost to prevent repeat of mini budget chaos March 29, 2023 Pension funds that borrow hundreds of billions of pounds to maximise returns for clients need to keep more money aside to withstand a repeat of the financial market aftershocks which followed Liz Truss’s mini-budget, the Bank of England has recommended. Liability driven investment (LDI) funds that are used by retirement funds to boost returns for [...]