The Roman Empire has a lesson for Andrew Bailey on devaluing a currency June 24, 2022 Winston Churchill once said: “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” Those words apply to many aspects of our lives, not least economics. The past few weeks have seen the pound slump in value. In May alone, it fell by around eight per cent on its year-on-year value [...]
Cocktail of problems plunge UK consumer confidence to record low June 24, 2022 A relentless cost of living crunch, the prospect of a recession and stagnant wage growth has driven British pessimism to new highs, reveals a closely watched survey published today. UK consumer confidence dropped to minus 41 points this month, down marginally from minus 40 in May, the lowest reading recorded by research firm GfK since [...]
Letters: Home ownership isn’t everything June 24, 2022 [Re: Government admits most Brits will not benefit from Boris Johnson’s ‘benefits to bricks’ housing plans, June 22] In essence, the idea is positive but, in practice, it’s not currently feasible. Take for example the government’s plan to allow people on housing benefits to use welfare payments towards a mortgage. Welfare payments stop when a [...]
Second day of rail strikes send Trainline tumbling as FTSE 100 dips June 23, 2022 A second day of railway worker strikes sent shares in ticket booking platform Trainline tumbling as London’s top indexes dipped today. The capital’s premier FTSE 100 index dropped 0.97 per cent to 7,020.45 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, fell 1.05 per [...]
Britons lose £5k a year during lost decade of productivity growth June 23, 2022 Workers have lost an average of £5,000 every year over the last decade due to the UK’s meagre productivity growth, reveals a new report published today. Britain’s productivity growth has lagged the rest of the G7 “throughout much of the post-war period, which seems to indicate a deep structural problem,” according to the National Institute [...]
Shares plunge for Naked Wines after bleak sales guidance warning June 23, 2022 Naked Wines’ shares tumbled by around 40 per cent on Thursday after the online wine retailer warned its sales would take a hit this year. The London-listed retailer cautioned its shareholders that sales could plunge by as much as four per cent in the year to the end of March. Naked Wines would “not pursue [...]
Rampant inflation swells UK debt interest bill and pushes up government borrowing June 23, 2022 Inflation is swelling the UK’s interest bill and forcing the government to borrow more money to pay investors, official figures released today revealed. The amount of money the government paid to holders of UK debt jumped just over 70 per cent over the last year, reaching £7.6bn in May, up from £4.5bn last year, according [...]
The bear market story and what next – in six charts June 23, 2022 It’s been the worst start to a year for markets since the Great Depression. We tell the story so far in six charts. Like a bear with a sore head, many investors probably wish they had stayed in hibernation in 2022. It has been a brutal year so far, the worst since the Great Depression [...]
Do bear markets herald a recession? June 23, 2022 We look back over more than 100 years of data to ask what this week’s severe market moves might signal for the economy. After hitting an all-time high at the start of the year, the S&P 500 has plunged into bear territory this week. As a rule of thumb, the so-called bear market is when [...]
Fuel traders urged to take responsibility as wholesale price falls but petrol hits new record at pump June 23, 2022 Despite falling wholesale costs of petrol and diesel, prices are still going up at the pump as motoring groups call on fuel traders to offer consumers relief.