UK factories grow at fastest pace in six years but continue to slash jobs September 1, 2020 The UK manufacturing sector’s output grew at the fastest pace in more than six years in August as factories continued to recover from the coronavirus lockdown, a survey has shown. However, the sector was far from its pre-coronavirus size and firms laid off workers at a rapid rate as they adapted to the new economic [...]
UK economy unlikely to recover until 2023, KPMG says September 1, 2020 The UK economy is unlikely to reach its pre-Covid level until early 2023, according to new forecasts. KPMG’s latest quarterly economic outlook forecasts UK GDP will plunge 10.3 per cent for the year, downgraded from the 7.2 per cent predicted in June. However, a second lockdown of even just four weeks could leave GDP dropping [...]
Boris Johnson picks Number 10 official as top civil servant August 31, 2020 Boris Johnson has reportedly chosen a Number 10 official as the head of the civil service, indicating the Prime Minister is pressing on with wide-sweeping reforms. Johnson will appoint Simon Case to head up the civil service on Tuesday, according to the Financial Times. Case was appointed as the PM’s temporary permanent secretary in Number [...]
Spirits, telecoms and financial services set to be in UK-Australia trade deal August 30, 2020 Trade secretary Liz Truss will next week outline her plan to broker a UK-Australia trade deal that scraps tariffs for cars, clothing and spirits. Truss will tell MPs that talks are set to intensify between the two countries and that agreements on financial services, telecoms and technology could be in the deal, according to the [...]
UK ready to walk away from Brexit trade talks over state aid demands August 30, 2020 The UK has said it will walk away from post-Brexit trade talks if Brussels does not drop its demand to align with EU state aid rules. UK Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost has told his counterpart Michel Barnier that the UK is not willing to compromise on this point as the potential of a no-deal [...]
Share and share alike: electronically? August 28, 2020 Where – if you’re lucky enough to own shares – do you store the paperwork? A drawer? The attic? Share certificates – possessed by millions of Britons – and dividend cheques seem on a path becoming obsolete. A trend towards digital delivery of shareholder-related communications means that the era of private investors filing away their [...]
A no-deal Brexit could cause the UK’s digital sector to shrink August 28, 2020 The EU’s trade negotiator Michel Barnier recently said that a post-Brexit deal seemed unlikely. This supports our view at Securys that the Brexit transition period will close without an adequacy agreement, bringing an end to the unrestricted flow of data between the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA). Buried in a weekend article came [...]
Bumper summer for IPOs with fastest start to second half since 2007 August 27, 2020 Companies are pressing on with plans to go public even amid second wave fears, with the fastest start to the second half of the year since 2007. A global total of 241 initial public offerings (IPOs) have been recorded during the second half of the year so far, according to data from Refinitiv. Listings inevitably [...]
Ministers in talks over London to New York air bridge August 27, 2020 Plans are being made for an air bridge between London and New York so that passengers can travel to the US without needing to quarantine, it was reported today. Although the US remains on the UK’s travel “red list” due to high overall rates of coronavirus infection, ministers are in talks with American counterparts over [...]
Germany axes plan to speak about Brexit at high-level EU summit August 27, 2020 Germany has scrapped plans to discuss post-Brexit trade deal negotiations at an upcoming EU ambassadors summit as there has not been enough progress. Brexit was due to be a major point of discussion at the 2 September summit, however EU officials are reportedly increasingly pessimistic that the UK will leave on a no-deal basis on [...]