London reports no new coronavirus deaths since early days of pandemic June 9, 2020 London reported no new coronavirus deaths for the first time since the start of the pandemic yesterday, NHS England statistics show. The capital reported no new deaths in a 24-hour period until 5pm on Sunday. The city did see “a small number of people” die from Covid-19 over the weekend, but their deaths have not [...]
World Bank: Coronavirus to hit economic output by 5.2 per cent June 8, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic will cause global economic output to contract by 5.2 per cent in 2020, the World Bank has said, as more than 90 per cent of the world’s economies have fallen into recession. Advanced economies are expected to shrink seven per cent in 2020, the Bank said in its Global Economic Prospects report. [...]
BoE: Furlough means UK faces record labour market inactivity June 8, 2020 The UK is facing what appears to be a record level of inactivity in its labour market as huge numbers of people are on furlough or facing unemployment due to Covid-19, the Bank of England’s chief economist has warned. “We’ve seen activity across the economy collapse, and we’ve seen a rapid rise in inactivity among [...]
Labour not supportive of changing Sunday trading laws June 7, 2020 Labour has said it does not support the government’s move to scrap trading laws in England, which will allow super markets to open for more than six hours on Sundays. Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said she wasn’t convinced the changes would help stimulate the economy and that they would also deprive workers of seeing [...]
Small businesses could fail to pay back coronavirus loans, BoE governor warned June 7, 2020 The Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has been warned that £36bn of emergency coronavirus loans to small businesses risk turning toxic. A report by industry body TheCityUK’s Recapitalisation Group that will be published tomorrow warns of “unsustainable” debts which could impede recovery. The report, chaired by Aviva chairman Sir Adrian Montague and supported by [...]
Boris Johnson moves to ease lockdown faster in face of mass job losses June 7, 2020 Boris Johnson is set to accelerate the speed of easing the coronavirus lockdown, after warnings of impending mass unemployment. Ministers have drawn up plans to bring Britain back to something resembling normal life by July, in order to ensure industries benefit from summer trading. The new plans will see the government allow planning restrictions to [...]
BoE governor Andrew Bailey: Fiscal stimulus should keep climate change in mind June 5, 2020 Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has said stimulus packages from governments to tackle the coronavirus fallout should improve sustainability so as to help tackle climate change. In an opinion article with former governor Mark Carney and other central bankers, Bailey said countries should “build back better” after coronavirus, with green goals in mind. Yet [...]
A pro-growth vision for the UK economy June 5, 2020 The UK needs a pro-growth economic policy. That is one of the key lessons likely to arise from this crisis. It is also the central message of a new report that I have co-authored for the think tank Policy Exchange. The pro-growth strategy should be based on three arrows: credible fiscal activism, monetary and financial [...]
The City View: The Hound of Hounslow and the Flash Crash of 2010 June 5, 2020 In this episode Christian is joined by journalist Liam Vaughan, author of Flash Crash – a gripping account of how Navander Singh Sarao ran a trading system from his bedroom in his parents’ house in West London that contributed to the infamous 2010 flash crash where $1tn dollars was suddenly wiped from the value of global [...]
Scrap BoE’s two per cent inflation target, says think tank June 4, 2020 The Bank of England’s (BoE) two per cent inflation target should be scrapped and replaced with a four per cent nominal GDP target, a think tank has said. A Policy Exchange paper published tomorrow urges the government to consider temporary tax cuts to boost the economy after the pandemic. Some of the measures proposed include [...]