How does the UK rank in the world’s 50 most innovative economies? January 17, 2017 The UK lags behind 16 global economies when it comes to innovation, as Scandinavian countries plough ahead in pushing boundaries. The UK has grasped on to its spot at number 17 for the second year, however, in Bloomberg's 2017 Innovation Index, which ranks 50 of the world's economies based on six factors which indicate a recipe for innovation. [...]
London house prices edged closer to £500,000 in November January 17, 2017 The average house price in the capital edged closer to the half a million pound mark in November, rising to £482,000 for the first time. Figures published this morning by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed house prices in the capital jumped 8.1 per cent in the year to November, rising 1.9 per cent [...]
UK inflation rises faster than expected to hit highest rate in more than two years January 17, 2017 Prices in the UK increased faster than expected in December, as the impact of a weaker pound continues to feed through on consumer shopping baskets. The consumer price index rose by an annual rate of 1.6 per cent, beating market expectations of around a 1.4 per cent increase in prices, according to the Office for [...]
Davos 2017: This is what’s happening at the World Economic Forum today January 17, 2017 The 2017 World Economic Forum kicked off at Davos today, with a star line up of speakers ready to air their views on subjects ranging from the future of the digital economy to safe water. The first panel discussion on today's agenda, which began at 7.15am, was the Size Matters talk on the future of [...]
Traders prepare for sterling volatility ahead of Theresa May’s Brexit speech January 17, 2017 The pound fell to a three-month low overnight, and is continuing to hover around that mark ahead of Theresa May's Brexit speech later today. At pixel time sterling was back above $1.21, however, traders are preparing for volatility in the currency as the Prime Minister is set to lay out plans for a "clean break" [...]
Why attacking billionaires doesn’t help the poor January 17, 2017 Oxfam was founded nearly 75 years ago with the noble aim of preventing war-time governments from blocking the provision of urgently needed supplies to Europe’s suffering civilians. On top of the horrors of war, the world was a far more harsh and impoverished place back then. Globally, nearly 24 per cent of infants failed to reach [...]
Why the Bank of England could turn more hawkish in 2017 January 17, 2017 Suppose the UK had voted to stay in the EU. Would the Bank of England have hiked its benchmark interest rate by now? Yes, probably. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the central bank aggressively expanded monetary policy in August, shortly after the UK voted for Brexit. The Bank's efforts, in conjunction with Theresa May’s ship-steadying [...]
Oxfam is wrong to imply free markets make the rich richer at the poor’s expense January 17, 2017 Every year Oxfam releases statistics comparing the wealth of the global poor and the global rich, showing a stunning, often widening, gap between the two. They heavily imply that the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer – but only half of this is correct. The lot of the world’s worst off [...]
Bank of England governor Mark Carney claims stimulus package in August saved 250,000 jobs from being lost January 16, 2017 Mark Carney has been slammed by leading Brexiteers after claiming that 250,000 jobs could have been lost if the Bank of England had not taken action in the aftermath of last year's EU referendum. Bank governor Carney slashed rates to 0.25 per cent in August last year, while expanding the UK's quantitative easing programme and providing [...]
British bosses are bold about Brexit – but worried about global growth January 16, 2017 Bosses at Britain’s largest firms are more optimistic about prospects for business expansion than their international counterparts despite sharing greater levels of concern about global growth and the fallout from Brexit, according to a new survey by PwC. The annual report, released tonight at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, is based on [...]