Bank of England Agents’ survey finds six in 10 firms to cut investment plans due to EU vote August 10, 2016 Investment and hiring will flat-line over the rest of the year as UK businesses come to terms with the result of the EU referendum, a Bank of England survey has revealed. The Bank's agents' summary of business conditions, comprised from interviews with 270 firms representing 1.2m employees "indicated the result of the EU referendum would have a [...]
Unfazed Bank of England to carry on with billion-pound bond purchases despite setback August 10, 2016 The Bank of England is pushing ahead with its bond-buying programme as planned despite yesterday's stumble. Threadneedle Street was unable to find enough bond sellers on the open markets for its planned purchases yesterday, coming up £52m short of its target in a £1bn-plus operation. This morning the Bank confirmed it will continue with today's asset purchases, [...]
Summer reading: Four leading UK economists offer their book recommendations August 10, 2016 With its political and economic ructions, this summer has been anything but sleepy. If you’re looking for some holiday reading to prepare you for the year ahead, City A.M. has asked four of the UK’s leading economists to offer their recommendations. Tim Harford writes the Undercover Economist column for the FT and is presenter of More [...]
Institute for Fiscal Studies: UK better off inside EU Single Market August 10, 2016 Leaving the EU Single Market will cost the government an extra £8bn in lost tax receipts and result in financial services firms leaving London, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said. The revered number crunchers have argued today in a new paper that any Brexit deal which does not result in the UK remaining [...]
Challengers lambast competition watchdog’s report for focussing on technology and ignoring red tape issues August 10, 2016 Challenger banks have lambasted the competition watchdog for squandering a rare opportunity for change in a sector dominated by larger players. Many of the UK’s up-and-coming lenders were disappointed that yesterday’s final report from the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) retail banking investigation focused more on using technology to disrupt the sector than on tearing down some of the [...]
Soft Chinese inflation raise spectre of rate cuts August 9, 2016 The prospect of more monetary stimulus in China edged closer today with a soft inflation reading from the world's second largest economy. Price rises, as measured on the consumer price index (CPI), slipped back from 1.9 to 1.8 per cent in July – significantly off the People's Bank of China's (PBOC) three per cent target. Factory [...]
Bank of England suffers bond setback as QE kicks off again August 9, 2016 The Bank of England’s attempt to buy long dated gilts as part of its quantitative easing (QE) programme hit a rough spot today, with the central bank failing to attract enough offers from investors. The Bank's reverse gilt auction was only 96 per cent covered – it had planned to purchase £1.17bn of government bonds with maturities longer than [...]
UK economy contracted in July amid Brexit fallout August 9, 2016 The UK economy contracted in July as the UK was left reeling from the fallout of the vote to leave the European Union, a leading economic think tank has estimated. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said the UK shrunk by 0.2 per cent during the political turmoil of July. Niesr said the figures confirmed their [...]
Before the bell: What you need to know before the US market open August 9, 2016 US stocks are nearing record highs and China's inflation grew at its slowest rate in seven months. Here's what you need to know ahead of the US market open at 2:30pm London time. US stock markets are nearing all time highs (the S&P 500 hit an all-time high of 2,185.54 points yesterday, although it pulled [...]
Research shows people live longer during recessions August 9, 2016 A new study has found that mortality rates drop and people live longer during periods of economic hardship. For every one percentage point increase in unemployment, research published today by IZA World of Labour found there is a 0.5 percentage point fall in the number of deaths in developed economies. According to Nick Drydakis, a reader in economics at [...]