“At the Spring Statement, Rishi Sunak has to make a huge judgment call” With a week to go until the next fiscal event in the government’s calendar – the Spring Forecast Statement on 23 March – new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has highlighted its belief that the Chancellor has some big […]
Category archives: News in Review
News in Review
‘The situation remains highly fluid and the outlook is subject to extraordinary uncertainty’ Last week, as the invasion of Ukraine entered a second week, the President of the World Bank declared the situation “a catastrophe” for the world. Although David Malpass stressed his biggest concern is “about the pure human loss of lives” he also […]
News in Review
“The UK is announcing the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions that Russia has ever seen” ‘Freedom Day’ in England was overshadowed last Thursday as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, with troops attacking the country from the north, south and east. The European Union hailed the invasion as one […]
News in Review
“Falling COVID cases and the slow return to offices offer further hope for town and city centres” Storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin swept the country over the last week or so, causing major disruption. With trains and flights cancelled, schools and venues closed, people were urged to avoid travel and to stay at home. The […]
News in Review
“GDP grew robustly across the fourth quarter as a whole” With the dust settling on the recent rise in Bank Rate and an increase in springtime inflation expectations, some positive news was released at the tail end of last week in the form of Q4 GDP data. The official statistics from the Office for National […]
News in Review
“I’m afraid we do have to raise Bank Rates… This is a lot of pressure on households” Financial announcements came thick and fast last week, impacting household budgets and living standards for millions across the UK. As anticipated by many economic commentators, on Thursday the Monetary Policy Committee voted to increase Bank Rate from 0.25% […]
News in Review
“The economy has recovered more quickly than expected, creating a growth dividend for the Treasury” Some interesting data was released last week, which prompted speculation as to the Chancellor’s intentions regarding the rise in National Insurance Contributions (NICs) in April. The data showed that government borrowing reached nearly £17bn in December; despite this being the […]
News in Review
“It’s likely households will face a cost-of-living crunch for much of the year” The biggest economic story of last week is something impacting everyone’s pockets – inflation. Data released from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday revealed that surging food and energy prices had pushed inflation to a near 30-year high of 5.4% […]
News in Review
“It’s amazing to see the size of the economy back to pre-pandemic levels” A raft of economic news landed in the last week or so, one of the most prominent being the latest UK gross domestic product (GDP) statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which highlighted that the UK economy surpassed pre-COVID levels […]
News in Review
“Although supply chains remain severely stretched, there are at least signs that the situation is stabilising” As the new year takes root, the latest IHS Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index has highlighted an elevated level of optimism amongst UK manufacturing firms. Although supply issues and staff shortages continue to hamper growth in the sector, production rose […]