{"id":1879,"date":"2021-09-15T12:02:02","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T11:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/?p=1879"},"modified":"2022-07-05T14:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T13:10:06","slug":"news-in-review-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2021\/09\/15\/news-in-review-20\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201c<\/em><\/strong>This rise will impact the wider economic recovery<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Over the past\nseven days, government plans to raise National Insurance contributions to fund\nthe health and social care system have continued to feature prominently in the\nnews headlines. Last Wednesday, despite warnings of a mass Tory rebellion, MPs\nvoted by 319 votes to 248 to approve the new \u2018health and social care levy\u2019.\nEarlier that day, the Prime Minister had defended the move, insisting it was “the\nreasonable and the fair approach”<\/em>, despite it breaking a key manifesto\ncommitment. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The decision, however, came under\nintense fire from business groups. Manufacturers\u2019 organisation, Make UK,\ndescribed it as \u2018ill-timed as well as illogical,\u2019<\/em> while the Federation\nof Small Businesses said the tax hike marks \u2018an anti-jobs, anti-small\nbusiness, anti-start-up manifesto breach.\u2019 \n<\/em>British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Head of Economics, Suren\u202fThiru,\nsaid, \u201cThis rise will impact the wider economic recovery by landing\nsignificant costs on firms when they are already facing a raft of new cost\npressures and dampen the entrepreneurial spirit needed to drive the recovery.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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UK growth rate slows sharply<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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According to the latest gross\ndomestic product statistics published last Friday, the UK economy grew by 0.1%\nin July. While this represents a sixth consecutive month of growth, the\nincrease was much lower than June\u2019s figure of 1% and significantly below the\nconsensus forecast of 0.6% taken from a Reuters poll of economists. Analysts\nsaid the slowdown was primarily due to July\u2019s upsurge in COVID cases and the\n\u2018pingdemic\u2019, which left many workers self-isolating at home. In addition, the\nfigures highlight the ongoing impact of supply chain problems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Trade deficit on the rise<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Other data released last Friday\nshowed Britain\u2019s goods trade deficit at a seven-month high of \u00a312.7bn in July.\nThis widening was driven by a 6.5% fall in goods exports to the EU, which was\nonly partially offset by a 5% rise in exports to non-EU countries. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Data published the previous day\nrevealed that Germans spent nearly 11% less on British goods during the first\nsix months of 2021, with the UK now expected to drop out of Germany\u2019s top 10\ntrading partners by the end of this year for the first time since 1950. BCC\nHead of Trade Policy, William Bain, commented, \u201cExports to the EU fell in July. Taken in\nconjunction with German trade data, the UK is clearly doing less trade with the\nEU than three years ago. Overall, the figures remain concerning.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Labour market recovery continues<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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There was brighter news on the\njobs front though, with Office for National Statistics data released on Tuesday\nshowing the labour market continuing to recover. The latest official figures\nput employee numbers back at pre-COVID levels; job vacancies at an all-time\nhigh, while unemployment continues to fall. This situation, however, is\ncreating problems for employers, with a survey published last week by the\nRecruitment and Employment Confederation reporting the most severe shortage of\njob candidates on record. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Other data released last week\nshowed the number of people on furlough stood at 1.6 million at the end of\nJuly, 340,000 fewer than the previous month. Estimates suggest up to a million\nemployees could still be on furlough when the scheme winds down at the end of\nSeptember and this continues to cast a high degree of uncertainty over the\nlabour market. The Confederation of British Industry recently warned that,\nwhile the end of furlough will inevitably bring some people back into the jobs\nmarket, it will not be a \u2018panacea\u2019 <\/em>that will \u2018magically fill labour\nsupply gaps<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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US-China trade relations<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Last week also saw hopes of a\nreset to the strained US-China relationship. In their first conversation for\nseven months, US President Joe Biden spoke by phone to his Chinese counterpart\nXi Jinping last Thursday night. The White House said the 90-minute call had\nbeen initiated by Mr Biden and that the two leaders had a \u201cbroad, strategic\ndiscussion\u201d<\/em>. The pair discussed the \u201cresponsibility of both nations to\nensure competition does not veer into conflict\u201d<\/em> and this has raised hopes\nof a potential improvement in US-China trade relations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Autumn and Winter Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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On Tuesday,the government\nannounced measures to deal with rising COVID cases in England over the winter.\nIf Plan A is not sufficient to prevent \u201cunsustainable pressure<\/em> \u201con the\nNHS, Plan B will be required as a \u201clast resort<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Here to help<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Financial advice is key, so please do not\nhesitate to get in contact with any questions or concerns you may have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The value of investments can go down as well\nas up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. The past is not a\nguide to future performance and past performance may not necessarily be\nrepeated.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis rise will impact the wider economic recovery\u201d Over the past seven days, government plans to raise National Insurance contributions to fund the health and social care system have continued to feature prominently in the news headlines. Last Wednesday, despite warnings of a mass Tory rebellion, MPs voted by 319 votes to 248 to approve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,112],"tags":[],"hd_content_source":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1882,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions\/1882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1879"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=1879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}