{"id":3784,"date":"2022-01-05T10:35:15","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T10:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/01\/05\/news-in-review-37\/"},"modified":"2022-07-05T14:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T13:10:06","slug":"news-in-review-37","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/01\/05\/news-in-review-37\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u20182022 will be defined as the year of the squeeze\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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As wages stagnate, and energy bills and taxes rise,\nthe latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook released by the Resolution\nFoundation has warned that m<\/strong>illions of families face a \u2018year of the squeeze\u2019<\/em>\nin 2022, potentially <\/strong>leaving the average household \u00a31,200 worse off. The expected rise in the\nenergy price cap and National Insurance contributions in April are key\ncontributors, culminating in what the report calls an overnight \u2018<\/em>cost of living catastrophe.\u2019<\/em><\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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With inflation predicted to peak at 6% in the spring, its highest\nlevel since 1992, the Foundation warned that real wage growth, which was flat\nin October, \u2018almost certainly started falling last month and is unlikely to\nstart growing again until the final quarter of 2022.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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With the coming months set to be challenging for household\nfinances, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, Torsten Bell, commented\non the findings, \u201c2022 will begin with Omicron at the forefront of\neveryone\u2019s minds. But while the economic impact of this new wave is uncertain,\nit should at least be short-lived. Instead, 2022 will be\ndefined as the \u2018year of the squeeze\u2019<\/a>\u2026 Top of the government\u2019s New Year\nresolutions should be addressing April\u2019s energy bills hike, particularly for\nthe poorest households who will be hardest hit by rising gas and electricity\nbills.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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One year on\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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A year has passed\nsince the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) was signed, and the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) survey on the impact of\nBrexit’s first year has revealed some interesting findings. Providing an insight into the\nexperiences of businesses and how they are dealing with the changes to the\nUK-EU trading relationship, unsurprisingly the proportion of firms reporting\ndifficulties following the trading changes has increased since January last\nyear. Key findings show that 45% of firms reported difficulties adapting to the\nrule changes for buying or selling goods bought about by the TCA, whilst 15%\nfound it easy. Almost a quarter (23%) of firms encountered difficulties buying\nor selling services, whereas 14% found it easy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Although reasonable worst-case\nscenarios were avoided, there was a significant material hit to trade,\nparticularly in the first two months of 2021. UK exports later recovered, but\nnot fully \u2013 some sectors such as clothing and food are still experiencing\ndifficulties. Total UK-EU trade missed out on a global rebound in trade in 2021\nand remained at the very low levels seen in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Director General of the BCC, Shevaun Haviland, commented on the\nfindings, \u201cWhile the data does suggest, one year into the implementation of\nthe deal, that trade is becoming more difficult rather than smoother, we do\nbelieve there are solutions which can improve conditions for our import and\nexport businesses. These data certainly do illustrate that the issues with the\nTCA are not \u2018teething problems\u2019  but more structural defects that,\nwhilst fixable, if not attended to will lead to long term damage to our import\nand export sectors.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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She continued, \u201cWe hope that these figures, along with our report\ndetailing the experiences of businesses and suggesting ways forward, will\nprovide an opportunity for an honest dialogue about how we can improve our\ntrading relationship with the EU.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Decline in UK air travel <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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A new report from aviation analytics firm\nCirium has provided insight to the devastating impact of the pandemic on\ninternational travel, showing a 71% decline in international flights in and out of the UK in 2021\nand a decline of almost 60% in UK\ndomestic flights. Although the US only reopened its borders to UK travellers in\nearly November, the busiest international route was between Heathrow and New\nYork\u2019s JFK Airport. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Markets<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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In\nthe last trading week of the year, despite escalating virus cases, stocks were\nsupported by hopes that the Omicron variant is milder, potentially limiting the\neconomic impact. The FTSE 100 recovered to pre-pandemic levels and ended the year up 14.3%, registering its best annual gain for five years. In the US, the Dow Jones closed the year up 18%. Brent crude closed the year trading at around $78 a barrel, an annual\ngain of over 51%. The price was lifted by higher demand and\ncautious production increases by OPEC+. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Plan B to continue<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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In a Downing Street briefing on Tuesday, Boris Johnson said he hopes\nEngland can \u201cride out<\/em>\u201d the Omicron wave without further restrictions and\nannounced plans for critical workers to take daily virus tests. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

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 guide\nto future performance and past performance may not necessarily be repeated.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u20182022 will be defined as the year of the squeeze\u2019 As wages stagnate, and energy bills and taxes rise, the latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook released by the Resolution Foundation has warned that millions of families face a \u2018year of the squeeze\u2019 in 2022, potentially leaving the average household \u00a31,200 worse off. The expected rise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":3786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,112],"tags":[],"hd_content_source":[116],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3784"}],"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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3787,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3784\/revisions\/3787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3784"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=3784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}