Business confidence falls amid warnings Brexit uncertainty is holding back investment August 30, 2018 Business confidence fell significantly in August as firms batten down the hatches for a bumpy year, according to a closely followed survey of British companies. The balance of firms expecting stronger trading prospects in the coming year fell by five points to 29 per cent, according to the Lloyds Bank survey of more than 1,000 [...]
British consumer borrowing growth slowest since 2015 as personal debt stutters August 30, 2018 British consumers added to their borrowing at the slowest pace since the end of 2015 in July, adding to signs the rapid increase in the UK's personal debt pile is losing momentum. The annual growth rate of consumer credit, including credit cards and other forms of non-mortgage debt, slowed to 8.5 per cent, a level of [...]
Argentina calls for early release of $50bn IMF support as crisis deepens August 30, 2018 Argentina has requested the early release of a $50bn (£38.5bn) credit line from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after the peso hit new lows amid a deepening financial crisis. The value of the Argentine peso toppled yesterday, prompting the government to call on the IMF to speed up access to the funding in a bid to raise [...]
Politicians have abandoned economics for paternalism August 30, 2018 Have advocates of lifestyle and environmental regulation given up pretending that the policies they advocate are grounded in good economic analysis? Two stories from last week suggest so. The first was reporting around a new study by the Global Burden of Disease project, which concluded that even moderate drinking increases the risk of alcohol-related health [...]
DEBATE: Does the shock resignation of the French energy minister prove that Macron’s regime has lost its shine? August 30, 2018 Does the shock resignation of the French energy minister prove that Macron’s regime has lost its shine? Adam Bartha, director of Epicenter, says YES. It’s hard to lose something that you haven’t had for a while, but Nicolas Hulot’s resignation in protest of Emmanuel Macron’s agenda shows what we should already have known. The French [...]
G20 imports and exports fall for the first time in two years August 29, 2018 G20 international merchandise trade has fallen for the first time in two years, figures published today show, due to the "significant depreciation" of several currencies against the dollar. Imports to the world's major economies dropped by 0.9 per cent in the second quarter of this year, and exports fell by 0.6 per cent, according to the Organisation [...]
US economy grows even faster than first thought August 29, 2018 The American economy expanded at a faster rate than previously thought in the second quarter, according to updated figures published today. US GDP rose at an annual rate of 4.2 per cent in the second quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said, an upgrade from the first estimate of 4.1 per cent. The US [...]
Turkish lira slumps further after banks downgraded August 29, 2018 The Turkish lira has slumped further against the dollar after ratings agency Moody's downgraded banks yesterday evening, amid a dispute between President Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump. The currency weakened to 6.4 lira to the dollar early this morning, its weakest since 15 August, and had dipped as low as 6.37 before recovering [...]
Northern Ireland can’t afford to wait any longer for a government August 29, 2018 Northern Ireland has taken centre-stage in Westminster over the past year. The Irish border forms a crux of the Brexit debate, and there’s also the small matter of the confidence-and-supply arrangement the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has formed to prop up the Conservative government. However, there’s an even more pressing political story over the Irish Sea [...]
From Venezuela to East Berlin, people will always choose capitalism over socialism August 29, 2018 How many people across the world in the history of humanity have fled from a capitalist country to a socialist one? There was much amusement at the height of the long miners’ strike of 1984/85. A National Union of Mineworkers official from Yorkshire, a crony of Marxist trade unionist Arthur Scargill, sought sanctuary in the Stasi-controlled [...]