{"id":1888,"date":"2021-09-22T12:04:29","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T11:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2022-07-05T14:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T13:10:06","slug":"news-in-review-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2021\/09\/22\/news-in-review-21\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201c<\/em><\/strong>This is fundamentally a growth market, and we see it\ncontinuing to be that way<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The travel\nindustry has featured prominently in the news over the past seven days, with an\neasing of travel restrictions announced on both sides of the Atlantic. Last\nFriday, simplification of the traffic light system and testing requirements in\nEngland, was greeted positively by business groups, with the British Chambers\nof Commerce describing the move as \u2018very welcome news for businesses in the\ntravel sector and beyond<\/em>.\u2019 And on Monday, the US announced a relaxation of\nits COVID travel restrictions, with fully vaccinated UK and EU citizens allowed\nto fly to the country from November. Boris Johnson is currently visiting President\nBiden at the White House to discuss various issues including trade, climate change,\nNorthern Ireland and Afghanistan.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Meanwhile, Boeing published its annual 20-year jet\nmarket forecast last week, predicting a full air travel recovery by 2024,\nfollowed by a resumption of long-term demand growth. In a press briefing, the\ncompany\u2019s Vice President of Commercial Marketing, Darren Hulst said, “This\nis fundamentally a growth market, and we see it continuing to be that\nway.” <\/em>In a bullish assessment, Mr Hulst also noted that \u201cthe global\neconomy is trending back to where it would have been had the virus not actually\nhappened.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Inflation rises sharply<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Amongst a raft of economic data released by the Office for National\nStatistics (ONS) during the last seven days, the latest inflation figures\nrevealed a record monthly jump in the rate of price rises. The Consumer Prices\nIndex (CPI) measure of annual inflation hit 3.2% in August; this was up from\n2.0% the previous month and 0.3% higher than City economists\u2019 consensus\nforecast. However, ONS pointed out that the impact of last year\u2019s Eat Out to\nHelp Out Scheme on the cost of restaurant meals, was a key contributor to the\nsharp increase and suggested that \u2018much\u2019<\/em> of the rise was \u2018likely to\nbe temporary<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Economists do though expect\nthe CPI rate to continue rising over the next few months, partly due to a sharp\nhike in household\nenergy bills. Indeed, the soaring cost of wholesale gas and electricity was a\nrecurring theme last week, as prices surged after a key electricity\ninterconnector in Kent was taken offline following a fire. The surge in\nwholesale prices has not only fuelled concerns about rising inflation, but also\nsparked fears that a growing number of smaller energy firms could go out of\nbusiness. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Retail sales fall again<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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ONS data released\nlast Friday also showed that retail sales unexpectedly fell in August, with\nvolumes down 0.9% compared to July. Although sales remain well above\npre-pandemic levels, downward revisions to previous months\u2019 data now shows a\nsteady decline since April\u2019s lockdown easing peak, with August marking a record\nfourth consecutive monthly decline. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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According to ONS,\nthe further easing of hospitality restrictions impacted the latest data, with\nspending switched away from supermarkets in favour of restaurants and bars.\nShops also reported supply chain issues, with separate ONS data showing 6.5% of\nall retail businesses unable to get the stocks and other goods and services\nthey needed in August, with department stores and clothes shops particularly\nbadly affected by this disruption.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Borrowing higher\nthan expected<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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On Tuesday, public sector finance statistics\nshowed that government borrowing remains on a downward trajectory, although the\nlatest decline was lower than analysts had expected. In August, the government\nborrowed \u00a320.5bn; this was \u00a35.5bn below the comparable month last year but a\nsimilar amount above the average forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.\nHigher interest payments on inflation-linked bonds saw the cost of servicing\nthe government\u2019s debt rise to \u00a36.3bn last month, almost twice the level recorded\na year earlier. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Labour shortages remain a concern<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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A Confederation of British\nIndustry (CBI) and Pertemps Network survey released on Monday, has again\nhighlighted ongoing business concerns over the impact of labour shortages. The\nsurvey found that just over three quarters of all businesses reported access to\nlabour as a threat to the UK\u2019s labour market competitiveness; the highest\nproportion since this question was first asked in 2016. Firms have been\nstruggling to recruit staff following the pandemic and Brexit, and the CBI said\nthat supporting firms to plug the shortages gap in the immediate term is vital.\n<\/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 is fundamentally a growth market, and we see it continuing to be that way\u201d The travel industry has featured prominently in the news over the past seven days, with an easing of travel restrictions announced on both sides of the Atlantic. Last Friday, simplification of the traffic light system and testing requirements in England, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1889,"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\/1888"}],"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=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1891,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/1891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}