Fire sale UK plc: Goldman Sachs to snap up British assets on the cheap as panicky UK pension funds flee October 11, 2022 In a near-unprecedented rush by British pension funds to raise their cash holdings, Goldman Sachs and a range of other investment giants are planning to snap up UK assets at discounts of up to 30 per cent. Since Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrously received mini-budget at the end of September, UK pension funds are rushing to improve [...]
UK unemployment falls to 50 year-low amid jobs market exodus October 11, 2022 A sharp rise in the number of Brits dropping out of the jobs market altogether has artificially pushed the UK unemployment rate down to its lowest level since the mid 1970s, official figures published today reveal. The volume of people in the UK not looking for work climbed around 330,000 over the last three months, [...]
Brits swap pub for nights in as inflation deals heavy blow to finances October 11, 2022 Brits are responding to the cost of living crunch by ditching the pub for nights in to save money, a survey published today revealed. Consumer spending grew at the slowest rate since February 2021 over the last month, jumping 1.8 per cent over the year to September, Barclaycard said. Inflation has hovered around a 40-year [...]
£62bn of spending cuts needed to balance books, IFS forecasts October 11, 2022 Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng will need to slim the size of the state by £62bn to put the UK’s public finances on a stable footing, a top economic think tank said today. The prime minister and chancellor could be forced to reduce education and transport spending, which suffered deep cuts during the David Cameron [...]
London’s FTSE 100 dragged down by industrial giants as pound weakens against US dollar October 10, 2022 London’s FTSE 100 dipped today driven lower by investors ditching industrial giants on concerns over a slowdown in commodity demand amid a global economic slowdown. The capital’s premier index dropped 0.45 per cent to close below the 7,000 mark, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the [...]
Bank of England doubles daily bond purchase cap, but borrowing costs surge October 10, 2022 The Bank of England has rolled out a raft of measures to help shore up the UK gilt market this morning as it looks to stave off a return to turmoil when it halts its bond-buying programme on Friday.
More Consolidation Ahead for Europe’s Consumer Sector? October 10, 2022 | City Talk Europe’s consumer industry has suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and has had to adjust quickly to survive. Lockdowns froze physical players and e-commerce provided a lifeline for survival for some. But the easing of restrictions did not necessarily help: consumer behaviours have clearly changed and retail footfall has not recovered to pre-pandemic [...]
OBR financial report and government fiscal plan to be delivered on 31 October October 10, 2022 The UK’s spending and borrowing watchdog’s assessment of the government’s tax cutting splurge will be released on 31 October, chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced today. In a letter to Tory MP and chair of the treasury select committee, Mel Stride, Kwarteng said he has decided to bring the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecasts forward from [...]
Kwarteng to meet with IMF after it cautioned chancellor over mini-Budget October 9, 2022 Kwasi Kwarteng will travel to Washington, DC this week to meet with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the first time as chancellor. Kwarteng is travelling to the US for the IMF’s annual meeting, the first of its kind in-person since Covid, where he is expected to meet with its managing director Kristalina Georgieva. He [...]
Stronger than expected US job growth plunges pound against dollar October 7, 2022 The pound slipped 0.3 per cent against the dollar at $1.113 this afternoon after US labour figures suggested stronger than expected jobs growth. US employers added 263,000 jobs in September as the country’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.5 per cent, figures from the Bureau of Labour Statistics show. Economists polled by Reuters had previously expected US [...]