Economics lessons from history: Don’t expect a post-Covid boom December 2, 2020 Just over 200 years ago, the finances of the British government looked even more parlous than they do today. Since the mid-1790s, the country had been engaged in a titanic struggle with Napoleon’s France. To pay for the conflict, the government had borrowed on a massive scale. The cumulative financial deficit — the difference between [...]
The best medicine for the Covid economy? Tax reform December 1, 2020 In last week’s Spending Review, the scale of the economic challenge facing Britain was made unequivocally clear: the worst drop in GDP for centuries, unprecedented peacetime borrowing, and lasting scarring effects on productivity and the labour market. The chancellor is keen to stress that these problems will require a concerted response in the years ahead. [...]
Mortgage approvals jump to 13-year high as pandemic prompts house moves November 30, 2020 Mortgage approvals jumped last month as the coronavirus pandemic, and support measures such as the stamp duty holiday, prompted more people to move home. The number of mortgage approvals for house purchase reached 97,500 in October, compared to 92,100 the previous month, reaching the highest level since September 2007. Approvals were 33 per cent higher [...]
Got an idea to supercharge growth in left-behind Britain? Your country needs you! November 30, 2020 A lot has changed since the nation last went to the ballot box. A generation will never again take freedom for granted. The national debt exceeds 100 per cent of GDP. Lives have been lost, attainment gaps have widened, dying industries have been dealt a coup de grâce. But in one area the narrative has [...]
BoE’s Haldane sees inflation risks as economies bounce back November 29, 2020 Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane said inflation could rise by more than expected as progress on Covid-19 vaccines and huge amounts of stimulus raised the chances of a swift economic bounce-back. “As the economic recovery gathers pace next year, it will be important central banks remain squarely focussed on their core medium-term price stability mandates,” Haldane said in a speech [...]
Germany to double net borrowing for 2021 after suspending budget rule November 27, 2020 Germany will double its initially planned borrowing for 2021 to help finance businesses hit hard by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, lawmakers said Friday morning. The parliamentary budget committee has agreed to a debt of €180bn (£160bn), almost twice the originally planned €96bn (£85bn). This is the second largest amount of net borrowing [...]
Eurozone economic confidence slides amid soaring Covid cases November 27, 2020 Economic confidence fell sharply in the Eurozone in November, a new survey has shown, as the bloc grappled with soaring coronavirus cases and countries put in place economically damaging restrictions. The European Commission’s economic sentiment indicator dropped 3.5 points to 87.6, having recovered sharply in the summer after the lockdowns of the spring. It comes [...]
Tiered lockdowns spread gloom over UK services sector November 27, 2020 Firms in the UK services sector became much more gloomy in the third quarter of the year as the Covid “second wave crashed”, after optimism picked up in the summer when cases were falling, the latest CBI survey has shown. The consumer services sector was particularly downbeat, with the pandemic hitting business harder than in [...]
Coronavirus set to be ‘way less’ damaging than 2008 crash: IFS November 26, 2020 The hit to the UK economy from the coronavirus pandemic is likely to be “way less” than the impact of the financial crisis should the budget watchdog’s predictions come true, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank has said. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) yesterday said the economy would likely end up three [...]
BoE boss says Rishi Sunak right to spend big on Covid November 26, 2020 Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey backed chancellor Rishi Sunak’s approach to the public finances, saying he is right to throw the might of the state behind the coronavirus suppression effort. “It is absolutely sensible that public resources, resources of the state, are being used to cushion the huge impact of this absolutely unprecedented shock,” [...]