Nationwide races ahead of competitors with five per cent rates June 21, 2022 One of the UK’s biggest high street banks is offering savers a five per cent interest rate as competition among lenders to secure deposits heats up. Nationwide today has upped its rates on its FlexDirect account on balances up to £1,500 for the first year from two per cent, a more than double increase. The [...]
London markets kick off new week in positive fashion June 20, 2022 London’s top indexes kicked off the new trading week in positive fashion today, continuing a trend of wild swings on global markets. The capital’s premier index surged 1.5 per cent to close at 7,121.81 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, added 0.45 [...]
Housebuilders tank on stock market with investors ‘nervous’ about mortgage rates June 20, 2022 Housebuilders lead the London Stock Exchange’s top fallers today, after the latest house price data cautioned the tightening of purse strings amid a cost of living crisis. Barratt Developments and Berkeley Group led the descent, falling a little over four per cent each. While Persimmon dove 3.7 per cent, Ashtead slipped 2.8 per cent and [...]
Rates will need to rise faster to prevent sticky inflation, BoE official warns June 20, 2022 Interest rates will need to rise faster to stop inflation from being “embedded” in the UK economy over the long-run, a top Bank of England official warned today. Catherine Mann, a member of the Bank’s nine-strong rate setting committee, said “a robust policy move… reduces the risk that domestic inflation already embedded is further boosted [...]
30 per cent spike in insolvent companies as firms hit by rising costs and falling consumer spending June 20, 2022 The quadrupling of interest rates since December has tipped thousands of companies into insolvency, with a 30 per cent spike in the last three months. Almost 6,000 firms have gone down according to Mazars, the audit and tax specialists, up from 4,578 inn the previous three months. This comes after the Bank of England raised [...]
Bank of England drops mortgage market affordability test after less than a decade June 20, 2022 The Bank of England said this morning that its Financial Policy Committee will withdraw the so-called mortgage market affordability test. “Following its latest review of the mortgage market, the Financial Policy Committee has confirmed that it will withdraw its affordability test Recommendation,” the BoE said in a statement. This will come into effect from 1 [...]
UK inflation to bump above 40-year high on soaring food and energy prices June 20, 2022 The cost of living in the UK bumped above an already 40-year high last month driven higher by soaring energy and food prices. That’s according to the City’s consensus prediction of Wednesday’s new inflation figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Analysts expect prices to have climbed 9.1 per cent over the year to [...]
Recession concerns growing rapidly as central banks struggle to put inflation genie back in its bottle June 20, 2022 Despite attempts at a modest rebound on Friday, European markets still finished lower for the second week in succession, posting their lowest weekly closes since March. US markets also finished the week similarly mixed, but also sharply lower, with the S&P500 posting its worst week since March 2020, ahead of the Juneteenth long weekend. “As [...]
Interest rate hikes are a hard lesson for investors who relied on central banks bailouts June 20, 2022 In May last year, I wrote in this newspaper about the risks of moral hazard and the pandemic, with a generation of investors who had developed a skewed sense of risk. After the unprecedented level of central bank intervention, many believed policymakers would always ride to their rescue, providing portfolio safety nets with cheap money [...]
Money Spotlight: The reasons your real pay is dropping like never before June 19, 2022 Britons saw their basic pay fall at the fastest pace on record in April due to soaring prices. More pain is in store for UK households as inflation is set to hit further eye-watering peaks later this year. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said yesterday that regular wages excluding bonuses plunged by 4.5 per [...]