Government issued ‘Corona Bonds’ are inevitable. Could blockchain provide the answer to efficiency and transparency of their issue? April 21, 2020 Price Watch The crypto market has had a positive week with the total market cap once again heading north of the US$200bn mark and at the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at US$7,050.62 / GB£5,685.18; Ethereum (ETH) is at US$179.39 / GB£144.70; Ripple (XRP) is at US$0.1894 / GB£0.1520; Binance (BNB) is at [...]
Downturns this deep can take a long time to recover from, financially and mentally April 16, 2020 The stock market has declined by 25% or more on 11 occasions since 1871. The median recovery time from this point has been 1.8 years. Investors who shifted to cash after the 1929 crash faced a 34-year wait to break even, compared with 15 years for those who remained invested and less than 7 years [...]
Oil prices knock UK inflation rate down to 1.7 per cent in February March 25, 2020 UK inflation slipped 0.1 per cent in February to 1.7 per cent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed today, as oil prices sank. Falling oil prices helped push the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) UK inflation rate down from 1.8 per cent in January, amid the ongoing coronavirus travel restrictions. Read more: Oil prices stage [...]
Keith Wade: Is the world now heading for recession? March 13, 2020 As I returned to the UK last weekend, my taxi driver talked of panic-buying and impending food shortages. Having wondered if I had stepped off at the wrong airport, it subsequently became clear that his thinking was very close to that of the markets. On Monday (9 March), equities sold off and credit spreads widened [...]
2020 Budget live: City reacts to Rishi Sunak’s spending plans March 11, 2020 Welcome to City A.M.’s 2020 Budget Day live blog. Please refresh your browser for live updates. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to address fears over the economic impact of coronavirus, and announce waves of new infrastructure spending and changes on taxation in his 2020 Budget. It comes after Bank of England governor Mark Carney earlier [...]
Coronavirus: the economic impact March 5, 2020 The coronavirus threatens to derail the revival in global economic growth which began in the latter part of 2019. Economic indicators up to January continued to show an improvement in activity with business surveys signalling rising orders and output. However, confidence in the sustainability of the upswing has been undermined by the virus, officially known [...]
UK inflation rate jumps to 1.8 per cent in January February 19, 2020 UK inflation rose to a six-month high of 1.8 per cent in January, a significant increase from December’s rate of 1.3 per cent, according to official data released today. The rate remains below the Bank of England’s (BoE) target of two per cent. The bump comes as a surprise to analysts, who had forecast the [...]
Australian Dollar to GBP – Could this be one to watch? January 24, 2020 Singapore Dollar Fears of the coronavirus which has been spreading from China have affected global market sentiment. This week in Singapore December consumer price inflation results beat expectations; with food, transport, communication, and education costs the highlights. Beating November’s 0.6 per cent and the prediction of 0.7 per cent, December’s 0.8 per cent result is in line with the Monetary Authority of Singapore [...]
Premier Inn owner Whitbread sales drop in uncertain market January 16, 2020 Premier Inn owner Whitbread reported this morning that like-for-like sales fell in the third quarter as business uncertainty impacted travel plans. Shares dropped more than five per cent after the company said like-for-like sales dipped 1.3 per cent in the third quarter, dragged down by a 2.1 per cent drop in accommodation sales. Like-for-like food [...]
On a roll: Greggs employees to get £7m bonus after ‘exceptional year’ January 8, 2020 Greggs has said it will give staff a special £7m bonus payment following a “phenomenal” year when the launch of its wildly popular vegan sausage roll helped bring in a higher than expected profit. In a trading update issued this morning, Greggs raised its profit forecast for the 12 months ending 28 December 2019, calling [...]