Brits ‘to boost UK GDP by £16bn in post-lockdown spending’ as excess savings balloon to £160bn March 10, 2021 Brits to boost UK GDP by £16bn in post-lockdown spending as excess savings balloons to £160bn
British Business Bank boss calls for more ‘risk-sharing’ in recovery loan scheme March 10, 2021 The head of Britain’s state-owned business bank has called for more risk-sharing in SME lending as she looks at combatting fraud in a new loan scheme. Catherine Lewis La Torre, who took over as chief executive of the British Business Bank (BBB) in September, told City A.M. there is a need for the market to [...]
George Osborne hits out at Sunak’s ‘unenterprising’ corporation tax hike March 9, 2021 Former chancellor George Osborne has slammed Rishi Sunak for his £45bn plans to raise corporation tax, saying they will send a message to other countries that “Britain isn’t a very enterprising place”. Osborne said today that he would have preferred to raise VAT to raise government revenues instead of Sunak’s plan to hike corporation tax [...]
City A.M. TV – Daily Market Snapshot (video) March 9, 2021 City A.M. TV - Daily Market Snapshot (video)
OECD: Success of vaccine rollout boosts UK GDP forecast March 9, 2021 The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has upgraded its forecasts for the UK economy pointing to the success of its vaccine rollout. UK GDP is now forecast to grow 5.1 per cent this year and 4.7 per cent in 2022. It is a marked improvement on the OECD’s December projections which predicted 4.2 [...]
Higher yields not necessarily bad news for stocks, argues City-based investment veteran March 9, 2021 The spike in yields of late has sent shivers through stock markets, which recently reached an all-time high and whose valuations have been labelled as ‘stretched’ by more than one analyst. But this rise in yields, if contained, is not necessarily bad news for stocks. In fact, it suggests that the rotation into reflation-driven cyclical [...]
Impact-Weighted Accounting: the missing ingredient? March 9, 2021 | City Talk Sustainable investment capital increasingly demands evidence that positive impact is produced alongside positive financial return. Once adopted by investors, transparent impact metrics will initiate a rotation in portfolios that moves them away from ‘impact negative’ and toward ‘impact positive’ investments. This impact-driven rotation should produce environmental, social and governance (ESG) Alpha for investors. Impact is [...]
BP to keep partial work-from-home policy as oil major seeks to cut office costs March 8, 2021 BP plans to extend remote working as a further cost saving measure affecting 25,000 staff
Britons will not splurge Covid-19 savings on post-lockdown spending spree, says OBR March 8, 2021 Britons will not embark on a post-lockdown spending spree with funds saved during the Covid crisis, according to a senior member of the UK’s budgetary watchdog. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) committee member Sir Charlie Bean told MPs today that of the £180bn in excess savings Britons have accumulated during Covid-19, only “a relatively [...]
BoE boss says Covid recession will have fewer long-term effects than previous UK downturns March 8, 2021 The Covid crisis will not have as many long-term economic effects in the UK as previous recessions, according to Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey. Bailey today said his diagnosis of the UK’s economic recovery prospects was “positive, but with large doses of cautionary realism”. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) last week said it [...]