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 [...]
DEBATE: Should Theresa May push for a compromise with Labour to get her Brexit deal passed? February 13, 2019 Should Theresa May push for a compromise with Labour to get her Brexit deal passed? Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of London First, says YES. Theresa May’s primary goal must be to avoid leaving the EU with no deal. That means that the government must stop behaving as if it has a rock-solid parliamentary majority, and [...]
Looking out for the next financial crisis? Keep an eye on spiralling debt February 13, 2019 Concerns are growing that another financial crisis is imminent. No less important a figure than Kenneth Rogoff wrote last week that “the next major financial crisis may come sooner than you think”. Rogoff, a former chief economist at the IMF, shot to fame with his 2008 book This Time Is Different, co-authored with his Harvard [...]
President Trump to meet Xi ‘very soon’ as markets hope for end to US-China trade war, Conway says February 12, 2019 President Donald Trump wants to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping soon in an effort to end the trade war that has raged between the US and China, according to an adviser. Kellyanne Conway, previously Trump's campaign manager and now counsellor to the White House, told Fox earlier this week that Trump “wants to meet with [...]
Carney: Brexit could be the ‘acid test’ for a new global order and agreement must be reached February 12, 2019 Britain’s departure from the EU could be the “acid test” for a new global order, Mark Carney said today as he urged politicians to find a Brexit solution in the coming weeks. The Bank of England governor said Brexit had global implications and its outcome could determine whether international cooperation could exist alongside rising protectionism. [...]
MPs call for government to scrap ‘flawed’ inflation measure used to calculate rail fares and phone bills February 12, 2019 MPs have ramped up pressure on the government to fix errors in the “flawed” inflation measure used to calculate rail fares and mobile phone bills. The retail price index (RPI) lost its status as a national statistic in 2013 but, despite being branded a “very poor measure” by the Office for National Statistics, it is [...]
Should investors be worried about a EU turn in the Eurozone’s economic prospects? February 12, 2019 As the Eurozone’s largest economy, Germany usually acts as a bellwether for the rest of the bloc. So the European Commission’s decision to downgrade the country’s growth forecasts last Thursday is a worrying sign for the other euro nations. Expectations for GDP growth in Germany were cut to 1.1 per cent for 2019, down from the [...]
Let America’s radical socialists be a warning to British politics February 12, 2019 It is said that when America sneezes, the world catches a cold. Let us hope that the American left’s recent publication of its “Green New Deal” (GND) won’t be contagious enough to infect Labour here. Just over a week ago, Jeremy Corbyn had an in-depth phone conversation with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the rising socialist congresswoman. The aim, it [...]