Investment Week (July 11)
The UK was the “fastest growing G7 economy in Q1 2025, but this memory now seems distant. “Industry professionals have reacted with disappointment to the latest monthly UK GDP figures for May, which showed the economy contracted by 0.1%,” following on top of April’s 0.3% decline. Production output tumbled, “falling by 0.9% after an unchanged fall of 0.6% in April, while the construction sector dipped by 0.6% in May from a 0.8% growth the month before.”
Tags: April, Construction, Contracted, Decline, Disappointment, Fastest-growing, G7 economy, GDP, May, Output, Production, Q1 2025, Tumbled, UK
Investment Week (July 19)
“UK retail sales volumes dropped by 1.2% in June,” marking a reversal of May’s stronger figures. Retailers are blaming “election uncertainty, along with poor weather and low footfall.” On the plus side, however, “falling UK wage growth boosts chances of August rate cut across most sectors.”
Tags: Election uncertainty, Footfall, June, May, Poor weather, Rate cut, Retail sales, Retailers, Reversal, UK, Volumes, Wage growth
Bloomberg (June 17)
“China’s home prices fell at a faster pace in May, as the country’s most forceful efforts to support the property market took time to revive demand.” Existing home values dropped by 1%, “the sharpest decline since at least 2011.” Oversupply is “dragging prices lower, giving people less reason to invest in property.” Meanwhile, “investors and analysts remain skeptical” that the government’s recent measures to revive the sector “will be sufficient” given the “funding revealed so far and the slow progress of existing trial programs in several cities.”
Tags: 2011, Analysts, China, Decline, Existing homes, Home prices, Investors, Lower, May, Oversupply, Prices, Property, Skeptical
Institutional Investor (February 1)
“The Federal Reserve has signaled that it expects to cut rates sometime this year,” though the first cut now looks likely to be delayed until at least May. “Still, most economists think that absent an inflation resurgence, the Fed is going to lower rates this year. Based on past rate cuts that have occurred before entering a recession, the two most likely outcomes are: “no recession and a strong bull market… or a recession and a bust for the Fed.”
Tags: Bull market, Bust, Delayed, Economists, Fed, inflation resurgence, May, Outcomes, Rate cuts, Recession
Reuters (June 7)
After beating expectations in Q1, “China’s exports shrank much faster than expected in May while imports extended declines with a grim outlook for global demand, especially from developed markets, raising doubts about the fragile economic recovery.”
Tags: Beating, China, Declines, Developed markets, Doubts, Expectations, Exports, Fragile, Global demand, Grim outlook, Imports, May, Q1
Investment Week (July 25)
“Excluding investment companies and international companies whose London quote was secondary, 1,180 companies were listed on the LSE as of the last day of trading in May 2022, down from 1,349 in May 2019.” During the first half of 2022, “the number of companies floating on the LSE also fell drastically…with just 26 companies debuting, marking a 45% decline compared to the first half of 2021. The UK was not alone. Global IPO activity was poor, with the number of deals falling to 46%.”
Washington Post (May 17)
With May “more than half over,” Russia’s Plan B is clearly “fizzling” with a notable retreat from Kharkiv. Russia “now appears to be aiming to take, at most, the entirety of a single Ukrainian region, Luhansk. And even that might be beyond the capability of Russia’s depleted, poorly led forces.” Instead, “a widening Ukrainian counteroffensive” might succeed in bringing “more of the Russian-held south and east of Ukraine back under the control of its legitimate government.”
Tags: Control, Counteroffensive, Depleted, Fizzling, Government, Kharkiv, Legitimate, Luhansk, May, Plan B, Retreat, Russia, Ukraine
The Economist (October 17)
“The prime minister’s election victory in December ought to have banished the memory of Theresa May’s hobbled premiership and rendered him dominant,” but he now bears “than a passing resemblance to his predecessor.” The first COVID-19 “wave cost Mr Johnson a great deal of his political capital. If the government’s record does not improve, the second could exhaust it.”
Tags: COVID-19, Election, Exhaust, Hobbled, Johnson, May, Political capital, Predecessor, Premiership, Prime minister, Resemblance
The Independent (May 24)
“One of May’s finest attributes has been the heartening way that, on several occasions, she’s decided to go over the heads of the MPs who have rejected her, so she can appeal to the public and be rejected by them as well…. So successful has Theresa May been, that having been 20 points ahead in the polls in 2017, her party now looks likely to win one quarter of the votes of a party boasting they’ll make us poorer until 2050.”
Tags: Appeal to the public, Attributes, May, MPs, Party, Polls, Poorer, Rejected, Votes
The Guardian (May 23)
“All political careers end in failure. Not all end in a punishment beating. The apparently imminent departure of Theresa May as Tory leader has seen a brutality rare even for the British Conservative party.”
Tags: Beating, Brutality, Careers, Departure, Failure, Imminent, May, Political, Punishment, Tory, UK
