Cost of living crunch: Grocery price inflation hits highest level in 13 years as households struggle to pay bills May 24, 2022 Grocery price inflation has now hit the highest level since May 2009, with almost a quarter of households saying they are struggling to make ends meet. Supermarket prices have risen seven per cent over the past four weeks, according to the latest grocery sales data published by Kantar this morning. Products to see the sharpest [...]
Wage pressures to persist amid tight jobs market May 24, 2022 Wage pressures emanating from the jobs market are set to persist in a sign elevated inflation may stay around for longer, reveals fresh research published today. Just over 27 per cent of workers in the UK intend to demand a pay rise from their employer over the next year, according to consultancy PwC. Brits, especially [...]
Bailey bats away claims Bank of England has fuelled inflation May 23, 2022 Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey today snapped back at criticism he and the central bank’s committee of rate setters have fuelled inflation in the UK. The governor dismissed accusations the Bank has contributed to the current living cost spike by over-flooding the UK economy with money during the Covid-19 crisis. “What I [...]
UK economy to shrink, but avoid recession for now May 23, 2022 A combination of a weak March handover and the Queen’s Jubilee in June is set to see the UK economy contract in the second quarter. An easing of coronavirus restrictions resulted in the UK economy growing 0.8% over the first quarter. But this respectable outturn masked a deterioration in the monthly profile. After a 0.7% [...]
ECB’s Lagarde butters up markets for first rate hike in over a decade May 23, 2022 The European Central Bank (ECB) will hike interest rates for the first time in over a decade in July, its chief signalled today. President Christine Lagarde in a blog post on the central bank’s website said the committee of rate setters will take borrowing costs out of negative territory by September. The ECB has trailed [...]
Traders increasingly short ‘awfully cheap’ Pound as inflation and cost-of-living crisis drive UK towards hard recession May 23, 2022 Traders are increasingly taking short positions against the Pound Sterling as the economic outlook for Britain deteriorates. Institutional investors, asset managers and other key players in the US, the world’s largest financial market, currently hold more than 128,000 short positions against the Pound, compared to just 32,000 long positions, according to the most recent figures [...]
Which?: Food prices climb a fifth in just two years May 21, 2022 Prices for some of the UK’s most loved grocery items have soared over the last two years, a new study has revealed. Supermarkets have hiked the price of 265 lines by more than a fifth, with Tesco raising the price of household favourtie Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut 21.4 per cent and Sainsbury’s lifting Warburtons’ four-seeded thin [...]
Pound on course for best week since Christmas 2020 May 21, 2022 The pound was on course for its best week against the dollar since December 2020 driven by investors betting on the Bank of England having to keep raising interest rates to get on top of a historic inflation crunch. Markets are baking in a fifth successive rate hike at the Bank’s next meeting in June [...]
Wall Street tips into bear market territory on recession fears May 21, 2022 Intensifying concerns about the health of the global economy has tipped Wall Street into bear market territory. The US’s top index, the S&P 500, at one point yesterday lost two per cent, ratcheting up its losses since its peak in January to more than 20 per cent, breaching the threshold for a bear market. The [...]
‘Unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings ALWAYS wrong’, says HSBC official on climate change impact May 20, 2022 A top HSBC banker has claimed global authorities are overplaying the impact of climate change, saying “unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings are ALWAYS wrong”. The banking giant’s head of responsible investing, Stuart Kirk, made his controversial claim during a presentation on a slide during a London conference yesterday. HSBC said his views did not [...]