Philip Hammond’s self-employment tax hike marred a refreshingly mundane Budget March 9, 2017 It took just a couple of hours for the chancellor’s Budget to come under heavy fire. He set out changes to Class Four National Insurance contributions, increasing them from 9 per cent to 11 per cent over a couple of years. This breaks a Conservative manifesto pledge ruling out VAT, income tax and NI increases, his [...]
Chancellor Philip Hammond picks a self-employed pocket or two in his first (and last) Spring Budget March 9, 2017 Chancellor Philip Hammond stands accused of breaking a key Conservative manifesto pledge after announcing a double-raid on Britain’s self-employed workers during yesterday’s Budget. Delivering the first of two Budgets this year, Hammond said he would raise the main rate of Class 4 National Insurance contributions (NICs) for the self-employed by one percentage point to 10 [...]
The International Energy Agency says it is inevitable that oil prices will see a massive increase March 8, 2017 Three years of drastic cuts to upstream spending because of the meltdown in oil prices could result in a shortage of oil supply in a few years, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. When oil prices collapsed in 2014, oil producers quickly took an axe to their spending. Global oil and [...]
The chancellor needs more than a rainy day fund to help Britain weather Brexit March 8, 2017 In his final Spring Budget, the chancellor was already weaning his audience from this once important spring affair, with little of significant economic policy substance announced. He was handed a gift by the Office for Budget Responsibility in the form of an upgraded outlook for 2017, in anticipation of more resilient consumer spending, although expectations for [...]
Budget 2017: Real wages predicted to rise after growth revised upwards this year by OBR March 8, 2017 Real wages are set to grow steadily for the next five years, the government’s Budget watchdog said, as it upgraded growth predictions for this year. Earnings will rise by 0.2 per cent above inflation this year, before accelerating to rise by 1.6 per cent more than prices by 2021, according to the Office for Budget [...]
European company results are beating analysts’ expectations March 8, 2017 European companies are defying analysts' expectations, according to new data. Fourth quarter revenues of nearly 61 per cent of companies in the Stoxx 600 that have reported to date have exceeded analysts' estimates, according to research from Thomson Reuters. In a typical quarter 53 per cent beat analyst revenue estimates. The Stoxx 600 is an index [...]
Budget 2017: Consumer-led growth is unsustainable says former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Charlie Bean March 8, 2017 The consumption-led growth which prompted the government’s economic watchdog to raise its forecasts for the UK economy this year is “unsustainable”, according to a former deputy governor of the Bank of England. Sir Charlie Bean said households “have been running down savings” to fund consumption. However, “that is not sustainable,” he said in a briefing [...]
Spring Budget: The OBR is still too pessimistic about UK growth this year March 8, 2017 The biggest story in the Budget wasn’t big news. It had been well flagged in advance that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was revising up its GDP growth forecast to 2 per cent in 2017. In November last year, the OBR expected just 1.4 per cent GDP growth this year. HM Treasury’s latest monthly survey [...]
Budget 2017: Chancellor Philip Hammond delivers boost to FTSE March 8, 2017 Philip Hammond's Budget announcements drove the FTSE 100 into positive territory for the day this afternoon. While no individual companies or sectors appeared to rise or fall too strongly, the FTSE 250 and FTSE 350 indices also edged up after the chancellor spoke. Read more: This is what the Budget had to say about UK [...]
Budget 2017: Philip Hammond’s national insurance hike prompts accusations Tories reneged on manifesto pledge March 8, 2017 Philip Hammond unleashed a set of measures aimed at closing the gap between the employed and the self-employed in today's Budget. The chancellor said he would raise the main rate of class 4 national insurance contributions (NICs) for the self-employed by one per cent to 10 per cent from April next year, with a further [...]