As consumer price rises fall to 1 per cent, is subdued inflation a new normal for the UK? December 16, 2014 Samuel Tombs, UK economist at Capital Economics, says Yes. Low inflation is unlikely to be just for Christmas. A combination of lower commodity and import prices, alongside stable energy bills, should mean that consumer price inflation falls to comfortably below 1 per cent in the coming months. And while the impact of these factors is [...]
Farewell corporate power: How the rise of the blockchain could change everything December 15, 2014 OUR WORLD is full of third parties – the people and organisations that regulate and manage our interactions. The financial world is particularly replete: conduct authorities, prudential bodies, central banks. Even commercial financial institutions themselves often operate as little more than giant third parties, co-ordinating the connections between millions of lenders and borrowers. However, a [...]
Britain’s infrastructure craze has echoes of Japan’s debt-fuelled building boom December 15, 2014 THE RECENT announcement that the projected cost of Crossrail 2 has risen to £27bn should be cause for deep concern within the Treasury. Added to HS2 and HS3, this means the total budget of just three planned or proposed rail schemes could be close to £100bn – or perhaps even higher, given the overruns so [...]
Bank of England stress tests: There’s still an elephant in the room December 15, 2014 With the Bank of England releasing the results of its stress tests today, banks’ financial strength is still a major concern for markets, regulators and policymakers. The second set of stress-testing results in just a two-month period, following the comprehensive assessment issued by the European Banking Authority and European Central Bank in October, the latest [...]
As vendors count the cost of the Amazon 1p glitch, is more protection needed for sellers? December 15, 2014 Stephen Palmer, managing director at TV Village, says Yes. It is important to note that this is not Amazon’s fault – it’s down to the third-party repricing software, RepricerExpress. But this has definitely made me more nervous about letting Amazon ship our goods, instead of us sending them directly. At least when we despatch them, [...]
What to expect in 2015: Europe down and crunch time for Japan and Mexico December 14, 2014 THERE ought to be a special circle of hell reserved for my colleagues – sadly a majority – who work so extra hard to never say much of anything. All too often, analysts, fearing being wrong to the point of never trying to be right, describe rather than analyse, and go along with conventional wisdom [...]
City Matters: India is a sleeping economic giant – the City stands to gain from its rise December 14, 2014 IN RECENT years, the UK has traded more with Ireland than all of the Bric nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) put together. That fact has been rolled out regularly by our politicians over the past few years. And it also explains why trade delegations led by the Prime Minister and other ministers to emerging [...]
Britain will stagnate if we fail to address our digital skills shortage December 14, 2014 THE SCALE of technological advance over the last two decades has been staggering, and it looks set to continue. According to the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness report, there will be 30bn devices connected to the internet by 2020, roughly four times the size of the estimated global population. In recent years, several companies have been [...]
The digital currency boom: Britain can claim first-mover advantage by acting now December 11, 2014 The UK has always been at the forefront of financial innovation, and we continue to lead the way today. This year, we became the first Western country to issue sukuk sovereign bonds. But we risk being caught on the hop in the emerging digital world. Within a few years, digital currencies, like Bitcoin, have gone [...]
Festive cheer: Even busy City workers should volunteer this Christmas December 11, 2014 It’s the season to be jolly, and the capital’s workers are flocking to celebrity-packed carol services, helping to swell the coffers of deserving charities. Just this week, guests joined the likes of Lesley Garrett, Dame Eileen Atkins and Colin Murray to raise £24,000 for children’s mental health charity Place2Be. And in the Square Mile, a [...]