Bank of England risks tipping UK economy into recession with further interest rate hikes, MPC’s Dhingra warns March 8, 2023 The Bank of England risks tipping the UK economy into recession if it raises interest rates too aggressively and worsening the cost of living crisis, a top official said today. Swati Dhingra, an external member of the Bank of England rate setting monetary policy committee (MPC), warned “overtightening poses a more material risk at this [...]
Twitter’s doom loop will banish us to even more politically partisan corners March 8, 2023 Every time Elon Musk tries to fix one problem at Twitter, but if Twitter does die, we will lose a good deal of humour and a genuinely useful platform, writes Josh Williams.
Chancellor to face ‘tough choices’ in delivering Spring Budget despite having to borrow £30bn less March 6, 2023 Jeremy Hunt will be forced to make tough decisions in his upcoming Budget, experts have warned, despite the Chancellor having considerably more wiggle room than previously thought. Improvements in the state of the British economy mean Jeremy Hunt will have to borrow £30bn less than the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR’s) November forecast showed, according [...]
Cost of living crisis has forced families to take on £1.1bn debt and dig into savings, says Bank of England March 1, 2023 Families are saving far less than they did over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic and maxing on credit cards to maintain spending amid the cost of living crisis, official figures have revealed. Brits set aside £3.5bn in January in savings accounts, a slight increase from December, but below the pre-pandemic monthly average increase of [...]
Lack of government strategy putting UK decarbonisation goals at risk, NAO warns March 1, 2023 The government lacks a plan for all electricity to be generated through clean energy sources by 2035, warned the National Audit Office.
Recession fears chill UK investment as CBI urges Jeremy Hunt to rethink tax grab at March budget February 27, 2023 British businesses are poised to mothball investment due to uncertainty over whether the country is on course to tip into a recession and a looming tax grab, a new survey out today indicates. Fears of a slowdown in spending caused by families’ finances being squeezed by the cost of living crisis has knocked optimism among [...]
UK inflation will drop back to Bank of England two per cent target by end of this year, economists predict February 22, 2023 Inflation in the UK is on track to fall exactly back to the Bank of England’s target by the end of this year, according to forecasts by two top City of London economists. The rate of price increases will tumble to two per cent in the final three months of 2023, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics. [...]
FTSE 100 close: London index dips below 8,000 point mark on interest rate hike fears February 21, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 closed below the 8,000 point today driven lower by a broad sell off fuelled by investors sweating over more interest rate rises from central banks. The capital’s premier index slipped 0.46 per cent to 7,977.74 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the [...]
Week ahead: UK January borrowing bill to hit £5bn to pay for cost of living support, experts predict February 19, 2023 Britain is expected to have borrowed around £5bn last month, largely to pay for household energy support, new figures out from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this week are poised to show. The difference between what the government spends and takes in tax revenue – the deficit – is likely to have been kept [...]
UK retail sales’ sluggish new year start as cash-strapped Brits go online to nab deals February 17, 2023 UK retail sales remained muted in January following December’s fall, with fuel sales spiking and prices continuing to plummet. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released the figures which showed retail sales volumes increased by just half a per cent last month. This comes after it dipped by 1.2 per cent in December, despite the [...]