City sitdown: Private equity should learn to be more emotional, argues City grandee October 5, 2022 Whether you like it or not, private equity is a significant part of the UK economy and accounts for almost 50 percent of all deal value, double the level from just five years ago, according to a recent deal analysis from PwC. Its fingerprint has been all over household names including Asda, the AA, Morrisons and [...]
Services economy stalls as UK ‘drifts’ toward recession October 5, 2022 Britain’s all important services economy is stagnating, driven by consumers cutting spending in response to soaring inflation, a closely watched survey out today shows. S&P Global and the Chartered Institute for Procurement and Supply’s (CIPS) purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 50 last month from 50.9 in August. The reading means the UK services economy [...]
Kwarteng trashes market bets on earlier OBR report and fiscal plan October 4, 2022 The pound today climbed to its highest level against the US dollar in two weeks despite chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng trashing market expectations of a sooner-than-expected fiscal plan. Sterling surged 0.78 per cent against the greenback to buy $1.141. It has now regained all its losses since Kwarteng’s mini-budget rocked the currency last month. UK borrowing [...]
Truss and Kwarteng mini-budget to ‘deepen’ UK recession October 4, 2022 Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision to slash taxes and ramp up borrowing without costing their plans will make the looming UK recession worse, City economists predicted today. Soaring mortgage rates driven by lenders passing on higher market yields pushed up by a lack of confidence in prime minister Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s [...]
Explainer: Bank of England hasn’t lost £65bn of UK’s money October 4, 2022 Let’s get one thing straight: the Bank of England is not going to lose £65bn on buying government debt. There’ve been a few social media posts (and a few newspaper headlines) whipping up this point. It’s untrue. Last week, the Bank said it will buy up to £65bn worth of long-dated government debt until 14 [...]
Productivity after sight-loss October 4, 2022 | City Talk Hugh Bassett Worldwide, over 1.1 billion people are living with unaddressed sight loss. This can vary in severity,but in many cases, it is intuitive that this will lead to a lack of productivity. Sight loss can cause orexacerbate poverty through reduced employment prospects and work productivity, as well asadversely affect educational opportunities and outcomes. This [...]
‘What a day!’: Kwarteng says his plan created ‘turbulence’, but it’s ‘not irresponsible’ October 3, 2022 Kwasi Kwarteng has said he will focus on “delivering the major parts of our growth package” in the wake of his U-turn on tax cuts for the UK’s highest earners, while insisting his plans are “not irresponsible”. The chancellor moved to calm Tory party fears about the U-turn and said his mini-Budget 10 days ago [...]
Gove says he’ll back government’s mini-Budget after 45p tax cut U-turn October 3, 2022 Michael Gove has said he will back the government’s mini-Budget in its current form, after Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng U-turned on their plan to slash the top rate of Income Tax. The Tory big beast today said “there were lots of good things that they announced and some potentially interesting things”, after spending yesterday [...]
FTSE 100 falls after dramatic 45p U-turn, as pound erases gains against dollar October 3, 2022 The pound pushed higher on Monday morning after the government said it would scrap its planned 45p income tax cut, while the markets dipped in response to the dramatic news. Sterling leapt by as much as one per cent against the US dollar to $1.12 early on Monday morning while teetering back slightly after a [...]
Kwarteng says ‘we must stay the course’ as he defends tax cuts October 2, 2022 Kwasi Kwarteng will tomorrow defend his tax cuts and declare “we must stay the course”, after the first day of Tory party conference was overshadowed by blue-on-blue attacks. The chancellor is expected to say he is committed to “fiscal responsibility”, after funding his tax cuts through more borrowing, in a bid to calm financial markets. [...]