CNN (November 15)
Since peaking above 10% in January, “UK inflation plunged to its lowest level in two years in October, allowing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to declare victory on his pledge to halve the rate of price increases this year.” However, “Sunak’s second pledge to voters — to get the economy growing — is looking increasingly out of reach.” During the three month’s ended in September, GDP managed “zero growth… compared with the previous quarter, when it grew by a measly 0.2%.”
Tags: 10%, Economy, Inflation, January, Lowest level, October, Peaking, Pledge, Plunged, Price increases, Sunak, UK
Reuters (September 8)
“Britain’s shaky ambitions to be the ‘Saudi Arabia of wind’ now stand at a blustery crossroads. Developers had been warning for months that the UK’s latest offshore wind auction, divulged on Friday, would receive no takers. Now that it’s happened, it may spur much-need action…. The very real prospect of zero wind schemes ought to be the kick up the backside UK politicians need to make the terms more appealing.”
Tags: Ambitions, Auction, Blustery, Crossroads, Developers, Offshore, Saudi Arabia, Shaky, UK, Warning, Wind, Zero wind schemes
Investment Week (August 4)
“The outlook for the UK equity market feels particularly depressed and it is not hard to see why. Even after June’s better-than-expected inflation figures, core UK inflation remains high, which suggests higher interest rates for longer. Commentators are expecting that the base rate, which at 5.25% is at its highest for over 15 years, is likely to peak around 5.75%. This would bring even more pain for mortgage borrowers and greater government borrowing costs to an already faltering economy.”
Tags: 5.25%, 5.75%, Base rate, Borrowers, Depressed, Equity market, Inflation, Interest rates, Mortgage, Outlook, Pain, Peak, UK
Investment Week (June 28)
“Confidence in the UK meeting its legally-binding decarbonisation targets from 2030 onwards has fallen ‘markedly’, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has today warned in a landmark report that delivers a damning verdict on the paucity of new climate action from the government over the past 12 months.” The report concludes “the government now faces a huge uphill challenge to attract the necessary green investment and get decarbonisation progress back on track this decade so as to ensure legally binding emissions targets are met.”
Tags: 2030, CCC, Climate action, Confidence, Decarbonisation, Emissions targets, Government, Green investment, Legally-binding, UK, Uphill
BBC (June 13)
“UK wages have risen at their fastest rate in 20 years, excluding the pandemic, raising expectations that UK interest rates will have to rise. Regular pay excluding bonuses increased by 7.2% in the three months to April, although it still lags behind inflation.” The Bank of England has raised “interest rates 12 times since 2021 to try to slow price rises” and warned that surging pay is contributing to inflation.
Tags: 7.2%, BOE, Bonuses, Expectations, Inflation, Interest rates, Pandemic, Pay, Price, Surging pay, UK, Wages
Reuters (June 9)
“There is much excited chatter that automation will unleash a Fourth Industrial Revolution, building on earlier upheavals caused by the arrival of steam power, electricity, and semiconductors. Yet in Britain, which gave birth to the first of those transformations, economic growth has stalled.”
Tags: Automation, Chatter, Economic growth, Electricity, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Semiconductors, Stalled, Steam power, Transformations, UK, Unleash, Upheavals
Investment Week (March 23)
“The UK’s higher than expected inflation results forced the Bank of England to prioritise bringing it down, rather than focusing on the fractures of the banking sector.” In February, “UK inflation hit 10.4%…an unexpected increase that followed three months of consecutive declines.”
Tags: 10.4%, Banking sector, BOE, Declines, February, Fractures, Increase, Inflation, Prioritize, UK, Unexpected
The Guardian (March 18)
“The UK remains on track for a ’disastrous decade’ of stagnant incomes and high taxes, despite cuts to public services” based on recent budget analysis. The Resolution Foundation thinktank determined that, after accounting for inflation, “typical household disposable incomes were on course to be lower by the end of the forecast period in 2027-28 than they were before the pandemic.”
Tags: Analysis, Budget, Disastrous decade, Disposable incomes, Forecast, High taxes, Household, Inflation, Pandemic, Public services, Stagnant incomes, Thinktank, UK
Investment Week (March 13)
“The Parker Review has revealed targets to improve the ethnic diversity of the boards of FTSE 350 and the 50 largest private companies in the UK, with a deadline set for December 2027.” While the committee feels the progress being made with the FTSE 350 is satisfactory, it believes “equal access to board positions needs to be matched by actions across all levels in business.”
Tags: Boards, Deadline, December 2027, Equal access, Ethnic diversity, FTSE 350, Parker Review, Progress, Targets, UK
The Guardian (February 26)
“Germany’s economic miracle was built on debt relief.” Today “unconditional debt relief” would help the poorest economies, countries that can’t reasonably repay their debts. “The biggest losers” should be private bondholders. “The UK and US should pass legislation requiring bondholders to take part in internationally agreed debt relief. The globalisation currently being orchestrated by the world’s richest countries is suffocating poor nations. What the German experience revealed is that removing the economic straitjacket would allow developing countries to breathe again.”
Tags: Debt relief, Debts, Economic miracle, Germany, Legislation, Poor nations, Private bondholders, Repay, Straitjacket, Suffocating, U.S., UK, Unconditional
