Manufacturers did better than expected in November, despite Brexit fears November 22, 2016 Manufacturers have posted their best month for orders since before the UK's vote to quit the European Union, beating economist expectations, and confounding Brexit slowdown fears. Optimism for coming months also increased with expectations for production over the next quarter reaching their highest level since February 2015. For November, manufacturing order books improved but export order books and output [...]
Every little helps: Government borrowing fell by £5.6bn in October November 22, 2016 Good news for Philip Hammond ahead of tomorrow's Autumn Statement: government borrowing fell £5.6bn in October, official figures showed today – putting the UK's total borrowing at £48.6bn in the year to the end of October. Excluding public sector banks, the figure fell £1.6bn to £4.8bn, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed. The [...]
Oil price rally pushes stocks up around the world as US indices hit multiple record highs November 22, 2016 The continuing rally in oil prices led stocks around the world higher as a succession US indices hit all-time record highs at the close. Oil prices are rising on expectations that oil production cartel Opec will cut production at the end of the month. It meets on 30 November. The US oil benchmark, West Texas [...]
The Brexit vote has wiped £26,000 off your wealth – and done away with 406,000 UK millionaires November 22, 2016 The Brexit vote has wiped $1.5 trillion (£1.2 trillion) off the wealth of UK households this year, a report published today has suggested. The Global Wealth Report, by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, found the wealth of each adult in the UK has fallen by $33,000, or £26,442, since the beginning of June. That puts [...]
Autumn Statement 2016: Looming dangers demand an urgent rethink of monetary policy in Britain November 21, 2016 A widely-held, but erroneous, view is that low interest rates act invariably as a welcome, unambiguous boost to business, consumers and the economy. Nonetheless, it seems almost incredible that the Bank of England has maintained an emergency rate since March 2009. The granting of (notional) independence over monetary policy to this institution has allowed politicians [...]
Ending discrimination against families in the tax and benefits system would mark chancellor Philip Hammond as a true radical November 21, 2016 Every now and again we have a radical government that changes the way things are done. Lots of governments try to give the impression of being radical by implementing swathes of new legislation. But really radical governments that change the course of history are rare. In the post-war period, we have only had the 1945 [...]
ECB president Mario Draghi maintains central bank’s stance on ultra-low interest rates November 21, 2016 European Central Bank president Mario Draghi has given a firm statement in favour of maintaining interest rates at zero per cent to continue to boost Eurozone inflation towards its two per cent target rate. In a statement to the European Parliament, he said: “We remain committed to preserving the very substantial degree of monetary accommodation [...]
Record highs on US stock exchanges driven by rising oil prices ahead of possible Opec production cut November 21, 2016 US equities moved upwards as the Nasdaq stock exchange hit a fresh all-time record high on intraday trading while the Russell 2000 also broke records on the back of expectations of an oil price rise. The Nasdaq Composite index gained over 0.5 per cent to break the previous all-time high of 5,359.90 points at 5,362.48. The [...]
A quarter of Brits think they can’t afford a dignified existence, while one fifth regularly can’t pay bills – although it’s better than France November 21, 2016 More than a quarter of Britons say that they “do not have enough money for a dignified existence” – although this was less than France, where 46 per cent of citizens thought they needed more for their dignity, a new survey says. A fifth of UK residents said that they are sometimes unable to pay their [...]
We asked economists what they want from Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Statement November 21, 2016 During the rapid post-Brexit shuffle at the top of UK politics many a word was spoken in haste, and perhaps none more so than confident predictions that Philip Hammond would put paid to George Osborne’s austerity politics with a bold return to Keynesian government investment. That might have been a bit rash, but it demonstrates [...]