Britain’s trade gap widens as exports to EU fall March 12, 2019 The UK’s trade deficit in goods and services widened by £1.3bn to reach £10.4bn in the three months to January as exports of cars and fuels fell, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. Britain’s trade in goods deficit widened by £1.6bn with EU countries and £0.8bn with non-EU countries to reach a total of £38bn, the [...]
Investing in firms that ‘do good’: too good to be true? March 12, 2019 | City Talk BlackRock is aggressively launching products with high environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings. The New York City-headquartered global investment management corporation’s CEO, Larry Fink, recently predicted that assets under management in the ESG category will grow from the current $25bn to $400bn in 2028. Investing in good corporates is intuitively appealing: who doesn’t want to [...]
UK economy rebounds in January but longer term growth remains weak March 12, 2019 The UK economy grew faster than expected in January, with GDP expanding 0.5 per cent, newly released figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show. This marked an improvement on December 2018, when GDP shrank by 0.4 per cent. Read more: OECD slashes growth forecasts and warns of no-deal Brexit recession January’s figure was [...]
DEBATE: Are smart speakers really a better measure of inflation for the ONS than envelopes? March 12, 2019 Are smart speakers really a better measure of inflation for the ONS than envelopes? Vicky Pryce, former joint head of the Government Economic Service and author of It’s the Economy, Stupid, says YES. It makes sense for the ONS to rethink its inflation basket. Fewer people write letters now, although parcels have increased with online [...]
The Conservative party needs to rediscover its economic way March 12, 2019 For most people, the Conservative’s 2015 “long-term economic plan” is now a distant memory. But as someone who was deeply immersed in that election campaign, I still sometimes wake up at night reciting its contents. Though much mocked for its repetition, the plan was more than just a catchphrase. From deficit reduction and tax cuts [...]
Deal or no deal, let’s make the UK the most attractive place for business March 12, 2019 What happens if there’s no Brexit deal? Over the past year, we’ve had various answers to this question – most ranging from the alarming to the apocalyptic. But while we’ve heard an awful lot about the problems, we haven’t heard much about solutions. That’s why our think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies, has just [...]
Norway has grown rich on oil, so why is its state-owned fund divesting from fossil fuels? March 12, 2019 Last week, one of the largest planned divestments of fossil fuel assets in history was announced. The Norwegian government publicly declared its intention to sell off ownership in oil and gas companies, to the tune of 66bn Norwegian krone (£5.7bn). This massive decision sent ripples through the markets, and the international benchmark Brent Crude was [...]
London-listed Reabold hits oil for the second time in two months March 11, 2019 Reabold Resources has struck oil for the second time in as many weeks, it said this morning, as a US well showed promising results. The operator at the Monroe Swell field, where Reabold owns half the rights, said it had found oil at the California site. Battling poor weather the drillers managed to find more oil [...]
Saudi Arabia set to cut its oil output to leave customers wanting more March 11, 2019 The world's biggest oil producer Saudi Arabia, is set to cut exports next month, despite strong demand, as it tries to boost global prices. State producer Saudi Aramco will sell 635,000 barrels per day less than what customers have asked for, a Saudi official told Reuters. Read more: Brexit disorder could dampen global oil thirst [...]
Brexit disorder could dampen global oil thirst, International Energy Agency says March 11, 2019 A “disorderly” Brexit could hit international demand for oil, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today while also warning of the impact of trade wars. The projection comes after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded its short-term outlook as economic sentiment weakens in many countries. Read more: Will global growth slowdown force more OPEC production [...]