Top finance brass bet on Bank of England rate hike October 18, 2021 The UK’s top finance brass are becoming increasingly confident the Bank of England will hike interest rates. Over half of chief financial officers (CFO) think rates will rise to at least 0.5 per cent by this time next year, research by Deloitte has found. Higher interest rate expectations have strengthened over the last three months, [...]
Back to 2007: UK house prices rise for every region and buyer type October 18, 2021 It’s a full house for the UK home buying market, with property prices rising last month in every region of the UK, London included, and for buyer types ranging from first-timers to those at the wealthiest rungs of the property ladder. In London, the average property price hit £650,683, up another 1.9 per cent on [...]
Bank of England will ‘have to act’ to curb inflation October 17, 2021 Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has signaled that the Bank of England is gearing up to increase interest rates. The central bank is considering raising interest rates for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus crisis due to increasing inflation risks. He believes the surge in energy prices raises the risk of [...]
Chasm widens between Sunak and Johnson on cost of net zero October 17, 2021 A leaked government document has revealed a widening chasm between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak over the economic impact of the UK reaching net zero by 2050. Despite Johnson preparing to put the UK at the forefront of global efforts to fight climate change as host of Cop26 climate summit next month, [...]
Raise a glass: Sunak set to overhaul alcohol tax regime October 17, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to overhaul the UK’s alcohol tax regime to give English wines an advantage over foreign wines. Sunak is preparing to scrap onerous levies on sparkling wine and bring the tax charged in line with the same rate as still wine, wiping an estimated 83p off bottles of bubbly, according to [...]
Bank of England dove flies against the wind on interest rates October 15, 2021 A member of the Bank of England’s rate setting committee has broken ranks and taken a more dovish stance against heating inflation. Silvana Tenreyro, an external member of the Bank’s monetary policy committee, warned it would be “self-defeating” to hike interest rates to hose down temporary bout of inflation. More to follow.
Labour squeeze shows no sign of cooling before Christmas October 15, 2021 Worker shortages that are threatening to throw a spanner into retailers’ Christmas operations show now signs of cooling. Over the last week, 235,000 job postings were created online, with a noticeable jump in demand for sales and retail workers, research by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found. The uplift was partly driven by a [...]
Sunak deaf to industry calls to overhaul business rates October 14, 2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has ignored calls from industry chiefs to shake up the business rate regime at the next budget. According to The Telegraph, government plans to overhaul the business rate system have been “thrown into the long grass”. The Chancellor has not had enough time to consider the effects of wholesale changes to the [...]
City rejects looming interest rate rise: ‘Old Lady should adopt Maradona theory’ October 14, 2021 Markets are increasingly betting that the Bank of England will raise interest rates before Christmas to contain spiralling inflation. The shift came after two of the Old Lady’s most senior officials gave the strongest signal yet that the central bank is ready to choke off inflation. Strengthening predictions over a looming rate hike triggered a [...]
US Fed to launch tapering as soon as next month October 14, 2021 The world’s most influential central bank has provided the strongest signal yet it is preparing to rein in the wave of stimulus it unleashed in response to the Covid-19 crisis. The US Federal Reserve is considering pulling back asset purchases designed to shield the American economy from the worst effects of the pandemic as soon [...]