Mark Kleinman: Aviva’s missed deadline ensures brickbats February 15, 2019 Viva Aviva? For such a stalwart of blue-chip boardrooms, Sir Adrian Montague suddenly can’t put a foot right. Four years after taking over the chairmanship of Aviva when John McFarlane scuttled off to Barclays, he’s ended up in a rather large pickle of his own making. Sacking Mark Wilson as the insurer’s chief executive last [...]
Investors fear slowdown as US Christmas retail drops February 14, 2019 US retail sales fell at their fastest rate in nearly a decade in December, stoking fears of a global slowdown, as shoppers watched their pennies over the vital Christmas period. Sales plunged 1.2 per cent, their largest monthly decline since the country was trying to recover from the financial crisis in September 2009. Read more: [...]
Brexit uncertainty costs UK £800m a week, says Bank of England economist February 14, 2019 Brexit has already cost the UK economy £40bn a year – or £800m per week – since the referendum due to prolonged uncertainty, according to Bank of England economist Gertjan Vlieghe. The rate-setter also said a no-deal Brexit would most likely to lead to an easing of monetary policy, while even in the case of [...]
Germany narrowly avoids recession as GDP remains flat in the fourth quarter February 14, 2019 Germany narrowly avoided a recession at the end last year as GDP remained flat in the final quarter of 2018. The Eurozone powerhouse’s economy had contracted in the third quarter and another contract would have seen it enter a technical recession. Read more: Eurozone industrial production suffers sharpest fall in almost three years But the [...]
Options are running out for the man who destroyed Venezuela February 14, 2019 It takes some front for a man who has presided over a double-digit recession for three successive years to claim that his country is being destabilised by a “gang of extremists” rather than his own inept economic performance. But that is exactly what Venezuela’s embattled President Nicolas Maduro did this week, when he stated that the [...]
US considers 60-day extension to looming China tariff deadline February 14, 2019 US President Donald Trump is mulling a 60- day extension of the 1 March deadline for higher tariffs on Chinese imports, according to reports. Trump is considering an extension to the 1 March deadline for more than doubling tariffs on $200bn (£156bn) of Chinese exports in order to give the two sides more time to come to [...]
US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is following a familiar path February 13, 2019 It has been nearly a year since Donald Trump infamously tweeted that “trade wars are good, and easy to win,” adding, for extra emphasis, “it’s easy!” How things change. America’s most enthusiastically protectionist modern-day President isn’t finding talks with China so simple after all. This week he rowed back on a supposedly-hard deadline that was [...]
Inflation drops to two-year low of 1.8 per cent as electricity and fuel prices fall February 13, 2019 The UK inflation rate fell to a two-year low of 1.8 per cent in January as electricity and gas prices continued to drop. The Consumer Price Index dropped from 2.1 per cent in December, falling below the Bank of England’s two per cent target for the first time since 2017. Read more: German inflation stalls [...]
Good, old-fashioned economic growth is the key to happiness February 13, 2019 Newly installed as Prime Minister, a fresh-faced David Cameron declared in November 2010 that “the country would be better off if we thought about wellbeing as well as economic growth,” as he launched a £2bn plan to measure the UK’s happiness. Measuring wellbeing is no easy task. Just ask the Happy Planet Index, which in [...]
Don’t hold your breath for an easy fix to the US-China trade spat February 13, 2019 Towards the end of last year, my investment manager sent out a note predicting that the US-China trade spat would be resolved and that markets would rise as a result. I responded by saying that it was unlikely to happen, and that I personally preferred an investment portfolio that was very underweight in companies whose [...]