Rising rents mean that by 2020 over 25 per cent of consumer spending will be on household and utility bills November 11, 2015 Housing and utility bills will account for over a quarter of total UK consumer spending by 2020. Household expenses is the fastest-growing category of consumer spending, increasing at a rate of 3.5 per cent a year, compared to spending on food, which will drop 0.4 per cent a year by 2020. Higher spending reflects rising rent [...]
Christmas 2015: Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda predicted to clean up this festive season – but Aldi, M&S and Lidl will beat Morrisons November 10, 2015 Black Friday might be set to be less of a big deal this year but Christmas is going nowhere. In fact, the UK is expected to spend £16.5bn on food, drink and presents during the festive season – up 2.5 per cent from last year. That's an average of £442 per person, according to data from [...]
UK Christmas sales 2015: Consumer spending soars as retailers worry over upcoming figures November 9, 2015 A double-whammy of sales data has suggested we could be in for bumper Christmas sales figures. Card giants Visa and Barclaycard both report that spending bounced back from a summer slow down in October. Visa’s index found spending growth rose to a three-month high last month, up 2.1 per cent, while Barclaycard revealed spending growth [...]
With Japan’s economy likely to have entered a technical recession, has Abenomics failed? November 8, 2015 Freya Beamish, an economist at Lombard Street Research, says Yes. Abenomics is failing, but the technical recession doesn't prove it so much as confirm Japan's exposure to China. In fact, Shinzo Abe has achieved some significant successes: strides have been made in improving corporate governance, although there is still a long way to go; the [...]
Bank of England interest rates: Why the MPC must raise the UK’s interest rates, instead of continuing to twiddle their thumbs November 5, 2015 Today, to the surprise of no one, the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) left interest rates at their current level of 0.5 per cent, its view justified by headline inflation that is, to all intent and purpose, zero per cent. This may appear sensible on the face of it – after all, why should [...]
Bank’s super Thursday could cause fireworks – London Report November 1, 2015 HSBC was this morning the latest UK bank to report results, with Standard Chartered rounding off third quarter earnings season tomorrow. There are concerns the emerging market focused Standard Chartered will have taken a hit over the past three months due to the slowing economy in China and fears surrounding emerging market growth. The bank’s [...]
Eurozone creeps out of negative inflation as consumer price index inches up to zero in October October 30, 2015 The Eurozone crept out of negative inflation this month, although it remains way below the European Central Bank's target of just under two per cent. Year-on-year CPI growth was flat, having fallen 0.1 per cent in September, according to a flash estimate by Eurostat out today. European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi has said the emerging market slowdown and financial market turbulence [...]
Consumer confidence hit its lowest level for 2015 in September – Lloyds Bank October 28, 2015 Consumer confidence dropped to the lowest level it has been in 2015 during September, the Lloyds Bank Spending Power Report revealed today. The proportion of people who feel comfortable about their household finances also dropped to the lowest it has been for the last five months, said the report. And the number of people [...]
US inflation rate drops to zero in September but core inflation is nearly on target October 15, 2015 Annual inflation in the US dropped to zero per cent last month from 0.2 per cent in August, weighed down by cheap fuel, according to figures released today by the Bureau for Labor Statistics. The consumer price index (CPI) – the basket of goods and services used to measure inflation – fell 0.2 per cent from [...]
Virtually flat US retail sales back case for delaying 2015 Fed interest rate hike, say economists October 14, 2015 US retailers sold $447.7bn (£290.1bn) of goods last month, hardly posting a rise compared with August as falling gasoline prices weighed on revenues at petrol stations. Retail sales climbed by 0.1 per cent on the month in September, according to figures released today by the US Census Bureau. The sales figure also marks a 2.4 per [...]