Jeremy Hunt’s fiscal rules are holding back the UK economy – it’s time for change February 21, 2023 Bean counters are running the Treasury again. I’m imagining sheets of paper plastered with Jeremy Hunt’s current fiscal rules pinned up around Whitehall to remind departments of the belt-tightening needed to balance the books. Fiscal rules are targets Chancellors have aimed to meet since George Osborne pivoted away from Gordon Brown’s “Golden Rules” in 2010 [...]
FTSE 100 close: Barclays and Lloyds Bank help London index kick off new week in the black February 20, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 kicked off the week with a positive start, led higher by Lloyds Bank and Barclays which both rose ahead of UK banks’ earnings season ramping up. The capital’s premier index nudged 0.12 per cent higher to 8,014.22 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health [...]
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House prices rose just £14 last month as Bank of England rate hikes chill demand February 20, 2023 UK house prices rose by just £14 last month indicating possible buyers are turning their noses up at sellers slapping huge tickets on their homes, new figures out today reveal. The average asking price for a home in the UK came in at £362,452, making last month’s increase the smallest between January and February since [...]
Week ahead: UK January borrowing bill to hit £5bn to pay for cost of living support, experts predict February 19, 2023 Britain is expected to have borrowed around £5bn last month, largely to pay for household energy support, new figures out from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this week are poised to show. The difference between what the government spends and takes in tax revenue – the deficit – is likely to have been kept [...]
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FTSE 100 close: London index pulls further away from record 8,000 point threshold as British Gas owner surges February 16, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 scaled further above the 8,000 point mark today driven by investors piling into British Gas owner Centrica after it posted record profits of more than £3bn last year. The capital’s premier index jumped 0.18 per cent to 8,012.53 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the [...]
Why is the UK economy poised to tumble into a recession and fall behind Europe, US and even Russia? February 16, 2023 Britain avoided a much-tipped recession at the end of last year. Phew. “However, we are not out of the woods yet,” warned Chancellor Jeremy Hunt after last Friday’s GDP figures from the ONS revealed the economy stagnated at the end of 2022, meaning it narrowly avoided the technical recession definition of two consecutive quarters of [...]
FTSE 100 close: London index breaches 8,000 mark for first time ever despite Barclays tumbling February 15, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 today breached the 8,000 point mark for the first time ever despite Britain’s biggest banks tanking after Barclays posted a big profits drop. Today’s move higher crystalises the premier index’s bullish start to 2023 that has seen it surged more than seven per cent. The new year rally builds on advances that [...]
UK inflation drops for third straight month in sign Bank of England is nearing end of interest rate hikes February 15, 2023 Inflation in the UK is falling faster than experts expected which may convince the Bank of England to consider ending its aggressive campaign to tame prices with interest rate rises, official figures out today reveal. The rate of price increases in Britain dropped to 10.1 per cent last month, down from 10.5 per cent in [...]