Exclusive: Unpaid stamp duty clawed back by the tax man soars to five-year high August 11, 2021 Tax clawed back from probes into suspected unpaid stamp duty reached a five-year high this year, reveal exclusive figures obtained by Morning Wire The tax man recouped an average of £113,400 from each investigation it launched into unpaid stamp duty in 2020/21, shows data secured through a Freedom of Information request submitted to HMRC. The data [...]
Strategic asset allocation or how I learned to stop worrying and love dispersion August 10, 2021 | City Talk For decades, strategic asset allocation has been considered the driving force behind investment portfolio returns. But the old adage that allocation determines 90 per cent of performance is rapidly becoming outdated. During 2020 and 2021, we have seen how the world of investing is shifting from one in which declining interest rates drive beta performance [...]
Oil prices rebound after nursing heavy losses August 10, 2021 Oil prices recovered ground this morning after suffering sharp losses yesterday amid concerns surging Covid cases in China will hit global oil demand. Global benchmarks WTI and Brent Crude added 1.31 per cent and 1.04 per cent to reach $67.35 and £69.76 respectively. Yesterday, oil prices shed over four per cent at the height of [...]
Londoners pay highest average inheritance tax bill in UK at over £270k August 10, 2021 Londoners pay on average the highest inheritance tax bill in the UK, according to latest official government figures. Data from HMRC shows residents in the capital paid an average of £271,820 in inheritance tax on their estates in 2018/19 upon death. Meanwhile, UK residents paid an average of £209,502 in inheritance tax in the same [...]
Euro 2020 and ‘Freedom Day’ lift consumer spending above pre-Covid levels August 10, 2021 Euro 2020, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and “Freedom Day” provided the perfect storm to lift consumer spending above pre-Covid levels, new figures released today reveal. Data from Barclaycard shows consumer spending was 11.6 per cent higher than in the same period in 2019, before the onset of the Covid crisis. Consumers rushed to pubs to [...]
Consumer fatigue slows retail sales growth August 10, 2021 Signs of fatigue among consumers after the initial burst in spending triggered by the gradual easing of Covid restrictions are starting to emerge, according to new figures released today. Research from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG show retail sales jumped 9.8 per cent in July compared to the same period in 2019, before the [...]
Brits still using pennies and pounds to buy goods August 10, 2021 Cash is continuing to play a significant role in facilitating transactions as Brits flock to high streets after “Freedom Day”, new figures released today reveal. A record £665m was withdrawn from Post Office counters in July, the highest monthly total excluding the historically busy Christmas period ever. Personal cash withdrawals in July were up 4.6 [...]
Weekend Read: We may be about to find out what shape the recovery takes August 7, 2021 Since the first cases of Covid-19 began to disrupt the global economy, economists have not been shy of predictions. V-shaped, L-shaped, even hockey-stick recoveries have all been on the table. We may be about to find out who was right. While output growth and economic activity are still historically strong, in developed economies, those indicators [...]
US jobs market recovery smashes expectations in July August 6, 2021 The US jobs market rebound is defying expectations and surging at a much faster pace than first thought, according to fresh data published today. The US economy added 943,000 jobs in July, helping to push down the unemployment rate 0.5 per cent to 5.4 per cent, the US Bureau of Labour Statistics said on Friday. [...]
Could technology trigger a lasting boost to productivity? August 6, 2021 | City Talk Two years ago, we identified a series of inescapable investment “truths” that we expected would shape the following decade. Among these truths, we highlighted the accelerated adoption of technology and increased populism as two disruptive trends to watch. But have these two trends been strengthened or challenged by the pandemic? Growth outlook stronger as economies adapt Despite [...]