Oil prices: Global capital spending faces further squeeze after declining sharply in 2015 – S&P March 17, 2016 Global business spending on capital dropped sharply last year and could fall to 2006 levels by 2017, a major ratings agency said today. Spending on physical assets such as property and equipment – known as capital expenditure or simply capex – dropped 10 per cent last year, according to estimates from Standard and Poor’s. Most [...]
Bank of England’s monetary policy committee votes unanimously to keep interest rates at rock bottom as it signals concern over EU referendum and pay growth March 17, 2016 Interest rates at the Bank of England will be kept at a record low of 0.5 per cent for the next month after another unanimous vote. The MPC is concerned pay rises might be lower due to subdued inflation, the minutes of the meeting revealed. The MPC said empirical evidence on inflation expectations and their [...]
Eurozone deflation ruins quantitative easing’s first birthday March 17, 2016 Annual price growth in the Eurozone dropped to back into negative territory in February, official figures confirmed this morning. Inflation as measured by the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) was minus 0.2 per cent in February, according to EU statistical office Eurostat. The data confirms an earlier estimate and shows inflation has deviated further from its two per [...]
Chancellor George Osborne approves Sir Charlie Bean’s shake up of UK economic statistics March 17, 2016 An overhaul of the way the UK collects and manages its economics data has been approved by the Treasury. Plans for an Economics Centre of Excellence and Data Science Campus at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have been announced as part of the budget. Around £17m of investment will support the initiatives at headquarters of [...]
Dollar dips as US Federal Reserve holds interest rates and cuts forecasts March 16, 2016 The US Federal Reserve kept it's main policy interest rates on hold today. The target rate for the federal funds rate was kept at 0.25 to 0.5 per cent. It marks the second meeting since December that the federal open market committee has held rates after rising them for the first time since the 2008-9 recession in [...]
Chancellor George Osborne to borrow £33bn more than expected over next five years despite boost from cheap debt March 16, 2016 Chancellor George Osborne will borrow an extra £33bn over the next five years as he ruled out making cuts to make up for a tax receipts shortfall. Weaker economic growth left Osborne with a £49bn tax receipts hole over the rest of the current parliament and £69bn gap over the next five years. Lower incomes alone will lead to a [...]
Budget 2016: Office for Budget Responsibility slashes UK economic growth forecast and hikes debt estimates projections March 16, 2016 The government’s fiscal watchdog has downgraded its economic growth forecast. The Office for Budget Responsibility believes the economy will grow two per cent this year, 2.2 per cent in 2017 and 2.1 per cent in each of three years after, chancellor George Osborne said today In November it forecast growth of 2.4 per cent in [...]
UK employment maintains record high as pay growth continues to rebound March 16, 2016 The UK's employment rate remained at 74.1 per cent between November and January, the joint-highest since records began in 1971. The headline unemployment rate maintained its 10-year low of 5.1 per cent, the data released this morning by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows. There are now 171,000 fewer people unemployed than in the same period last year. [...]
Bank of Japan expected to loosen policy next month as problems with negative interest rates start to emerge March 15, 2016 Economists are betting on Japanese central bankers loosening policy further next month, but some have warned its policy of negative interest rates is already creating negative side effects. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) kept its stimulus measures unchanged this morning, keeping the annual rate of its so-called quantitative and qualitative easing (QQE) at ¥ 80 trillion [...]
US retail sales fall 0.1 per cent in February as cash spent on gasoline plummets March 15, 2016 US retail sales dropped in February, but were likely held down by lower prices. Spending at retailers fell 0.1 per cent from in February to $447.3bn (£315.7bn), according to the Commerce Department. On the same month last year sales were up 3.1 per cent. The figure is not adjusted for inflation. Sales at gasoline stations [...]