Citizens’ assemblies would hand power to establishment experts July 24, 2019 Citizens’ assemblies have become the height of fashion. The London borough of Camden is currently holding one on how to reduce carbon emissions in the area. Last month, Nicola Sturgeon announced plans to set one up to consider constitutional issues in Scotland. The Irish government’s one on abortion featured in the 2018 referendum on the [...]
BoE chief economist cautions against interest rate cut with employment strong July 23, 2019 Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane has said he would be “very cautious” about cutting interest rates in the near future as the economy is stronger than it appears. Read more: Banks can cope with no-deal Brexit but risks remain, says BoE Speaking in Scunthorpe today he said low unemployment and relatively high consumer [...]
IMF warns over Brexit and trade wars as it cuts global growth forecast July 23, 2019 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its forecast for global economic growth over the next two years and said that a disorderly Brexit could damage global investment and trade. Read more: Race begins for IMF top job as Christine Lagarde submits resignation The Fund lowered its prediction for global growth by 0.1 percentage point [...]
Does Boris mean bad news for cable? July 23, 2019 | City Talk Johnson and Hunt are waiting to see which of them will be the next Prime Minister of the UK. Tory members voted for the next leader yesterday, with the winner expected to be announced this morning. The outcome of the Tory leadership contest will decide who will lead the UK in its exit from the [...]
Trump’s tweets do bitcoin and Facebook a favour July 23, 2019 Donald Trump’s recent tweet about bitcoin and that Facebook’s new quasi-crypto the “libra” would get the full force of the US regulators if they “want to become a bank” has put the crypto kitty amongst the pigeons. Why now? Surely Trump doesn’t care about bitcoin? Well, it was timed just before Facebook had to testify [...]
UK house sales plummet in June, held back by Brexit ‘ball and chain’ July 23, 2019 House sales crashed 16.5 per cent in June, as the property market took a “wait-and-see” attitude to transactions amid Brexit uncertainty. Monthly HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) figures showed British residential property sales fell to 84,490, more than one-sixth down on the same period last year. Read more: London house prices suffer worst plunge in [...]
NIESR: One in four chance UK might already be in recession July 22, 2019 Britain might have already fallen into a technical recession, an influential think tank has warned this morning, as it forecasts growth of one per cent even if a no-deal Brexit is avoided. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has said there is a one-in-four chance that the UK economy has already slipped [...]
UK households’ financial optimism hits six-month high July 22, 2019 UK households have struck an optimistic note on their future finances for the second month in a row, to mark a six-month high in their outlook. Financial health expectations moved up a gear in July after households recorded their first positive outlook since the start of 2019 in June. Read more: UK households turn positive [...]
UK households remain cautious on economic outlook, discretionary income and debt levels July 22, 2019 UK households remain concerned about their economic outlook, disposable incomes and debt levels, survey data out today shows. Deloitte’s consumer confidence index for the UK in the second three months to 30 June remained at a minus eight per cent – unchanged from the first quarter – but down four percentage points from the same [...]
Mortgages with terms over 40 years jump 20-fold July 22, 2019 The number of approved UK home mortgages with a term of more than 40 years rocketed in 2018, rising over 20-fold to 3,483 from just 162 the previous year, according to analysis by London estate agent Ludlow Thompson. Read more: Mortgage approvals dip in May but remain above average The figures are the latest sign [...]