Government records smaller January budget surplus February 21, 2020 The government recorded a smaller than expected budget surplus of £9.8bn in January, ahead of its public spending announcements due in March. A Reuters poll of economists had predicted an £11.3bn surplus. And the £9.8bn figure was £2.1bn less than the Treasury recorded in January 2019 despite a rise in self-assessment tax receipts of £1.3bn. [...]
UK inflation rate jumps to 1.8 per cent in January February 19, 2020 UK inflation rose to a six-month high of 1.8 per cent in January, a significant increase from December’s rate of 1.3 per cent, according to official data released today. The rate remains below the Bank of England’s (BoE) target of two per cent. The bump comes as a surprise to analysts, who had forecast the [...]
How will the pound perform in 2020? February 19, 2020 | City Talk Brexit cast a long shadow over the pound in 2019, but what will 2020 have in store for sterling? Caution from the Bank of England and faltering economic results were all seen through the lens of Brexit. Now while the focus may move slightly from the challenges of uncertainty due to a political impasse, the [...]
Time for the Treasury to get with the programme — Britain can afford to spend February 19, 2020 In the days of the old Soviet Union, so-called Kremlinologists would pore over every utterance of the Politburo, every sentence in Pravda, to try to work out what was really going on. Sajid Javid’s defenestration from the Treasury has led to an upsurge in similar types of intellectual effort here. What was it really all [...]
Winter Economic Update Webinar with Vicky Pryce February 18, 2020 | City Talk Register for the webinar to join moneycorp for their Winter Economic Update on Tuesday 25th February at 1pm GMT. The global economy has endured a turbulent start to 2020, affecting the currency markets and minds of investors around the world at the same time. With January already seeing the UK leave the EU, escalating tension [...]
Pound rallies as UK employment hits record high and wages beat 2008 peak February 18, 2020 Wages beat their pre-financial crisis peak for the first time at the end of 2019, as the level of UK employment rose to a record high of 32.9m people. A total of 180,000 people entered the workforce between October and December 2019, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today. That took the number of [...]
UK confidence in household finances hits record high February 17, 2020 UK households’ perceptions of their financial wellbeing rose to their highest ever levels this month in a sign of growing optimism over the UK’s economic prospects. IHS Markit’s UK Household Finance Index (HFI) – which measures households’ overall perceptions of financial wellbeing – increased to 47.6 in February, up from 44.6 in January. Although the [...]
Japan’s economy shrinks at fastest rate in five years February 17, 2020 Japan and Singapore teetered on the brink of recession today after a poor end to 2019 was compounded by the coronavirus threat to the countries’ tourism industries and supply chains. Japan’s economy shrank at its fastest rate in five years at the end of 2019, it was revealed today. GDP fell 6.3 per cent in [...]
DEBATE: Does it make sense to run the Treasury out of Number 10? February 17, 2020 Does it make sense to run the Treasury out of Number 10? Will Tanner, director of Onward, says YES. Boris Johnson is not the first resident of Number 10 to want a closer hold on Number 11. Pitt the Younger, Peel, Disraeli, Gladstone and Baldwin all served as chancellor and Prime Minister concurrently. The two [...]
Consumer credit forecast to grow at lowest rate for six years in 2020 February 17, 2020 Consumer credit is forecast to grow at its lowest rate in six years in 2020, despite a post-election pick-up in consumer confidence. The EY Item Club predicted consumer credit growth of 3.2 per cent this year. Although lending rose slightly at the end of 2019, signalling a post-election increase in demand, the annual forecast remains [...]