Pound slumps as City cuts Bank of England interest rate bets after shock inflation fall July 19, 2023 Pound sterling today has tumbled sharply in response to markets reining in their expectations for further interest rate hikes from the Bank of England. Britain’s currency shed nearly one per cent against the US dollar, its largest fall in months, to buy $1.29. It was down a similar amount against the euro at €1.15. The [...]
Why lower inflation should cause the Bank of England to tread carefully July 19, 2023 And breathe. The City and Bank of England have waited a long, long time for the Office for National Statistics to provide some good inflation news. Headline consumer price index inflation down to 7.9 per cent. Core inflation below seven per cent. Services inflation lower at 7.2 per cent. It is the first time that [...]
Pay growth stays at three decade high but inflation still stripping away wages July 19, 2023 Pay growth is running at its fastest pace in over three decades and has remained unchanged for the second quarter in a row, in a sign the Bank of England may have to back a bigger interest rate hike again next month. New figures out today from XpertHR reveal wages leapt six per cent in [...]
UK profit warnings hit highest yearly level since 2008, outside of pandemic July 19, 2023 The proportion of UK-listed companies that issued profit warnings in the past year was higher than any year since 2008, outside of the pandemic, according to new analysis. It comes as higher borrowing costs and a tougher sales environment have weighed heavily on businesses. Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange issued 66 profit warnings [...]
Bank of England interest rate hikes trigger record £2.1 trillion UK wealth collapse, report claims July 17, 2023 The Bank of England has engineered the largest contraction in UK household wealth on record by jacking up interest rates in response to scorching inflation, a new report out today has claimed. Asset values have collapsed by £2.1 trillion since early 2021, mainly driven by a sharp fall in bond prices in response to UK [...]
UK inflation to fall to lowest level since March 2022 but Bank of England still tipped to hike interest rates July 17, 2023 UK inflation is on course to drop to its lowest level in over a year, but lingering underlying price pressures will heap expectation on the Bank of England to keep on hiking interest rates, new figures out this week are tipped to show. The rate of price growth in Britain is expected to have dropped [...]
FTSE finance chiefs: Rates, inflation and growth squeeze C-suite confidence July 17, 2023 Ratcheting up interest rate expectations and intense fears about sticky inflation has hobbled FTSE finance chiefs’ optimism, a closely watched survey out today shows. Confidence among chief financial officers (CFO) of FTSE-listed companies has tumbled over the last quarter, according to consultancy Deloitte. Optimism among money managers at Britain’s largest businesses has eroded to net [...]
Sunak accepts six per cent public sector pay rises but warns it ‘will cost all of you as taxpayers’ July 13, 2023 Government has accepted recommendations for millions of public sector workers to receive pay rises of six per cent or more, Rishi Sunak has announced. The prime minister said today reports from independent pay bodies calling for public sector pay rises of between five and 6.5 per cent for millions of medics, teachers and civil servants [...]
Jeremy Hunt on track to ‘obliterate’ fiscal rules as OBR warns of much higher debt bill July 13, 2023 Jeremy Hunt is on track to blow out his financial goals due to the Bank of England hiking interest rates aggressively to bring down sticky inflation, according to new forecasts out today from the UK’s spending watchdog. Payments to investors who have purchased UK government debt are poised to rise more than £90bn above what [...]
King’s coronation steers UK economy back into red as GDP shrinks 0.1 per cent in May July 13, 2023 Lost work owing to the additional bank holiday to celebrate the King’s coronation has sent UK economic growth into reverse, official figures out today reveal. UK gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 0.1 per cent in May, a much smaller drop than the City expected and down from a 0.2 per cent expansion in April, according [...]