European growth aided by UK expansion and German bounce-back May 15, 2019 Growth in the Eurozone and European Union picked up in the first quarter of the year after a rough patch, with the UK showing solid expansion, the EU’s official statistics body confirmed today. Read more: Euro rises as Eurozone economy shows stronger-than-expected growth GDP growth in the EU rose to 0.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter, after growing [...]
Business risks ‘Corbygeddon’ if it doesn’t learn to speak up May 15, 2019 The headline in the Sunday Times was stark: “Rich prepare to flee Corbyn’s Britain as Tories desert PM”. The country’s millionaires and billionaires were, according to the compilers of the paper’s annual rich list, preparing for “Corbygeddon” – the prospect of a hard-left Labour government making an irreparable dent in both their own finances and the [...]
From ticket prices to stellar salaries, you can’t take the economics out of football May 15, 2019 The appearance of Liverpool and Spurs in the Champions League final and Arsenal and Chelsea in the Europa Cup one has generated massive interest. But the official ticket prices for the games are surprisingly reasonable. Liverpool and Spurs have been offered 16,613 tickets each. Five per cent of these are expensive, at £513 each. A further [...]
UK wages rise again as employment rate stays at record high says Office for National Statistics May 14, 2019 UK wages rose 3.2 per cent in the year to March, slightly down from a 3.5 per cent rise in the month before, data showed today as the unemployment rate hit an almost 45-year low. Read more: UK inflation rate holds steady sending Britons' real wages higher Average weekly earnings climbed 1.3 per cent year [...]
India’s economic reform needs a little more authoritarianism May 14, 2019 With the world’s largest General Election now fully underway, more and more people are expressing concern of a national impasse in India: a crossroads in terms of social, economic, and perhaps even constitutional identity. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, questions around India’s economic potential have become inextricably linked to issues [...]
London pulls away from rest of UK in wealth, says first paper in major inequality study May 14, 2019 London has been far more economically productive than the rest of the country over the last two decades while earnings in the capital are much higher than elsewhere, a new study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has shown. Read more: Hammond has the cash to end austerity, IFS says The IFS has today [...]
Economists pour cold water on Trump’s tariff arguments May 13, 2019 Economists have said US President Donald Trump’s argument that American consumers will not face higher prices after tariff increases shows “a fundamental misunderstanding of how tariffs work”. Read more: China retaliates with tariffs on $60bn of US goods Trump tweeted today: “Their [sic] is no reason for the U.S. Consumer to pay the Tariffs, which take [...]
US markets follow Europe downwards as China announces retaliation tariffs May 13, 2019 US markets have followed their European counterparts sharply downwards after the bell, following China's announcement of retaliatory tariffs on $60bn worth of US goods in the latest development in the two countries' trade war. Read more: Global markets in tailspin after Trump threatens huge China tariff rise The US’s S&P 500 opened down 1.8 per cent [...]
US-China trade war: China retaliates with tariffs on $60bn of goods following US levy hike May 13, 2019 China’s ministry of finance has announced that it will place tariffs of between five and 25 per cent on $60bn worth of US goods in retaliation for America’s more significant duty increases. Read more: European markets take a hit over US-China trade war escalation It will target around 5,000 US goods from 1 June, the [...]
Tariffs are just the first shot in the looming US-China war May 13, 2019 As a friend of mine who works in higher maths put it: “John, if America as an integer is present in every major foreign policy equation, and if after 75 years that integer radically changes, then everything changes”. Donald Trump’s America is that rarest of beasts: the strongest global power distrustful of the very global order [...]