By: Jake Cordell

I'm City A.M.'s economics reporter, looking at the news, stories and data that move markets in the UK, Europe and around the globe. I also cover broader developments in the business and political worlds at home and abroad.

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PwC tells emerging economies to get their act together on banking reforms

April 8, 2016

Some of the world’s largest economies would be dangerously exposed in the event of a fresh banking crisis, PwC has warned, as it calls for emerging economies to push forward on reforming their financial sectors. With commodity prices volatile and GDP growth slowing, PwC has raised fears that the developing world has not made sufficient progress on [...]
UK’s stubborn trade deficit shrinks slightly, poor exports despite a weaker pound suggest it isn’t going away soon

April 8, 2016

Britain's trade deficit narrowed by a miniscule amount in February 2016, nowhere near enough to allay concerns about a failure to rebalance the economy and increase sales of British products around the world. The deficit – the difference between imports and exports – came in at £4.8bn in February, shrinking slightly from an eye-watering £5.2bn in January. Exports [...]
Could you be unwittingly involved in the Panama tax-avoidance scandal?

April 8, 2016

What do you, David Cameron and Vladimir Putin have in common? Panama. Don’t wait for another punchline, it’s not a joke. Although the world’s great and not-so-good have been caught up in the sensational "Panama Papers" revelations, the latest twists and turns have revealed an even more intriguing side to the life of offshore finance – [...]
Sweet tooth for peckish Primark-owner Associated British Foods as it snaps up Africa’s largest producer of sugar

April 8, 2016

Primark-owner Associated British Foods (ABF) has finally filled a long-standing hole this morning, completing a £262m purchase of Illovo Sugar Limited, Africa's largest producer of the sweet stuff. The extra calories failed to put much energy behind ABF shares in London, however, with the firm up just 0.41 per cent to 3,401p in the first minutes [...]
Why is Britain becoming less productive? Economists blame everyone from government to investors to statisticians

April 7, 2016

The UK’s productivity has been trundling along at a less than spectacular pace for a number of years. This morning, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed it actually fell 1.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2015, raising concerns about the general state of the UK economy. But what is productivity, why [...]
Interest rates could be going even lower in the Eurozone, the European Central Bank has said

April 7, 2016

Interest rates in Europe could sink even further into negative territory over the next few months, the European Central Bank (ECB) confirmed yesterday, as it said that it would keep all options on the table in its fight to stave off deflation in the Eurozone. Minutes from last month’s monetary policy meeting, where ECB president [...]
China’s foreign currency reserves have just grown for the first time in six months

April 7, 2016

China has recorded a surprise jump in its foreign currency reserves in March, potentially ending a slide which has seen its stash of overseas cash fall by 20 per cent since 2014. Official data – out today – confirmed that China amassed an extra $100bn last month, taking its total reserves to $3.21 trillion (£2.28bn), in [...]
Map: How much you need to earn to live in every London postcode

April 7, 2016

Londonders are obsessed with how much it costs them just to have somewhere to kip at the end of the day. Understandably so. Rents are rising faster in the capital than anywhere in the country, while wages for full-time workers have been creeping up at a painfully slow rate. Yesterday, Sadiq Khan caused ripples when he [...]
Productivity even more puzzling: UK productivity disappoints – workers are doing less with more

April 7, 2016

Britain’s productivity plunged 1.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2015, according to fresh data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning, adding to concerns about the UK’s so-called “productivity puzzle”. Productivity is a measure of how much economic output is generated for each hour of work and is believed to [...]
US Federal Reserve looks abroad as it finds reasons to hold back on interest rate rises

April 6, 2016

A weak global economy and volatility on the financial markets stopped the US Federal Reserve from raising interesting rates for only the second time since the financial crisis last month. Minutes from March’s meeting of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), released this evening, showed that even though the US jobs market continued to perform [...]

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Who made the naughty list in the wine world in 2025?

By: Jake Cordell

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