Budget: OBR says UK to avoid recession and is on course to grow every year after short blip in boost for Jeremy Hunt March 15, 2023 Britain will avoid a much-tipped recession this year and will grow every year until 2027 after a short blip, a massive reversal from economists warning of the longest contraction in a century just a few months ago, the country’s spending watchdog said today. UK GDP is on course to suffer a mild slump in 2023 [...]
Blackrock boss Larry Fink: SVB collapse may signal ‘dominoes are starting to fall’ March 15, 2023 The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank could signal the “dominoes are starting to fall” after an abrupt end to the era of low interest rates and cheap money, the boss of the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock has warned. In his annual letter to investors today, Larry Fink said a series of aggressive rate hikes [...]
Budget: Hunt burns £15 hole in smokers’ pockets as cigarette packs increase by £1.89 March 15, 2023 Smokers will see the price of cigarettes increase to nearly £15 as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt hikes up the price of tobacco for the first time since October 2021. In his Spring Budget, Hunt said that the government would look to “uprate tobacco duty” which will see the price of a 20 pack of cigarettes increase [...]
London Underground walkout hangover to compound Thursday’s rail strike – but can you get to work tomorrow? March 15, 2023 Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will walk out on Thursday 16 March and on Saturday 18 March in a dispute affecting train services in and out of London. Network Rail expects between 40 and 50 per cent of train services to run nationally but there will be wide variation across the [...]
Budget: Why Jeremy Hunt needs you back at work to prevent a recession March 15, 2023 This was a budget for the workforce. It showed signs of sparking the supply side revolution that Liz Truss championed, but crashed hard in trying to get there too quickly. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) thinks so. It projects the government’s collective policies designed to boost the labour market will provide a 0.2 per [...]
PwC strikes deal with San Francisco startup to let lawyers and tax experts use AI chatbot March 15, 2023 PwC has struck a deal to start using an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to speed up work in its tax and legal divisions as the world’s top professional services firms increasingly look towards tech to boost efficiency. The accounting firm’s initial 12-month contract with San Francisco startup Harvey will see all 4,000 staff in PwC’s [...]
Budget ‘returnerships’: Will Jeremy Hunt’s plans to get over 50s back to work, work? March 15, 2023 Scrapping the lifetime allowance on pensions was just one of several measures announced in the Spring Budget aimed at getting the over 50s back to work, Many argue the move will only affect one per cent of the population, and was aimed at stopping an exodus of NHS doctors – who have often built up [...]
Budget: Can Jeremy Hunt’s R&D tax plans stop Britain becoming an ‘innovation wasteland’? March 15, 2023 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has attempted to soften the blow of changes to the research and development (R&D) tax scheme today after backlash from small businesses and warnings the UK could become an “innovation wasteland”.
Dr Doom: Famed analyst says Credit Suisse crisis is a ‘Lehman moment’ for global markets March 15, 2023 Economist Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed Dr Doom after he predicted the 2008 sub-prime crisis, said the Credit Suisse crisis is potentially a “Lehman moment” for European and global markets. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Roubini said Credit Suisse is “too big to fail and too big to be saved”. Whereas the collapse of Silicon Valley [...]
Budget: Five changes to energy policy – and one that got away March 15, 2023 City A.M. looks at the five biggest developments in the energy sector announced in Hunt's budget - and the one that got away.