{"id":4232,"date":"2022-01-26T11:18:08","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T11:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/?p=4232"},"modified":"2022-07-05T14:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T13:10:06","slug":"news-in-review-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/01\/26\/news-in-review-40\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cIt\u2019s likely\nhouseholds will face a cost-of-living crunch for much of the year\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The\nbiggest economic story of last week is something impacting everyone\u2019s pockets \u2013\ninflation. Data released from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on\nWednesday revealed that surging food and energy prices had pushed inflation to\na near 30-year high of 5.4% in December, up from 5.1% the previous month. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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With\nthe dual forces of rising prices and stagnant wages coming into play, the data\nrevealed that increases in the prices of\nclothing, household goods, restaurants, hotels and furniture also contributed\nto December’s rise in the cost of living. There are calls on the government to\ntake action to protect consumers as prices continue to rise in line with\nexpectations, especially with the situation set to intensify in the spring when\nthe energy price cap rises and National Insurance increases take effect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Lead\nEconomist at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Alpesh Paleja,\ncommented on the latest inflation figures, \u201cWe\u2019ve not seen the end of rising\ninflation yet. We expect it to peak in the months ahead, not least if, as\nexpected, the energy price cap is raised. With prices on the rise and real\nwages already falling, it\u2019s likely households will face a cost-of-living crunch\nfor much of this year.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Omicron\ntakes its toll on the High Street<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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As virus cases\nbegan to escalate in the run-up to the festive period, the High Street was\nimpacted as shoppers chose to stay away, with declines in footfall reported.\nConsequently, retail sales fell by 3.7% in December, with non-food store sales\nvolumes declining 7.1% in the month. Although food sales\nfell by 1% in December, volumes were above pre-pandemic levels. This data is set against very\nstrong sales in November, amid reports there would be some\nshortages in the run-up to Christmas, prompting people to shop early. Heather\nBovill, Deputy Director for Surveys and Economic Indicators at ONS commented on\ntheir data release, “Despite the fall in December, retail sales are\nstill stronger than before the pandemic, with over a quarter of sales now made\nonline.” <\/em>Fuel sales were also impacted – volumes fell by\n4.7% in the month as Plan B restrictions in England meant\nmore people worked from home.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Property market \u201cstrength and\nresilience\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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December property\nstats landed last week, with HMRC data showing that 100,110 transactions were conducted in\nthe month. This brings total UK property transactions to nearly 1.5 million\nlast year, a 26% increase on pre-pandemic levels, resulting in 2021 being the\nbusiest year for the housing market since 2007. Former RICS Residential Chairman Jeremy Leaf commented on the\nfindings, <\/strong>“These numbers interestingly demonstrate\nmarket strength and resilience even in the build-up to Christmas and withdrawal\nof government economic support in September… However, we have moved on since\nDecember. Activity and price rises are slowing a little, not least because of\nthe continuing shortage of stock but concerns about rising inflation and\nmortgage rates is also compromising confidence when it comes to taking on\ndebt.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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According to National\nAssociation of Estate Agents Propertymark data, the average number of house\nhunters registered per estate agent branch stood at 461 in December, the\nhighest number on record and an increase of 33% from December 2020. However, the number of properties\navailable per member branch stood at just 19 in December, the lowest figure\never recorded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Updated UK forecast<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The International\nMonetary Fund (IMF) revealed on Tuesday that expected UK growth for 2022 has\nbeen cut to 4.7%, down from a previous estimate of 5%. However, the UK remains\nset to be the fastest growing economy in the G7 industrialised nations for a\nsecond consecutive year. The IMF warned uncertainties such as the\nemergence of new COVID-19 variants could \u2018prolong the pandemic and induce\nrenewed economic disruptions.\u2019 <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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

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With concerns over military conflict in\nUkraine mounting, global stock markets faltered early this week, as investors\nembraced safe-haven assets including the US dollar. Uncertainty also weighed\nover the imminent Federal Reserve meeting and the likelihood of an interest\nrate rise, as well as the possible removal of stimulus measures. The IMF\ndowngrade impacted Wall Street stocks further on Tuesday. After a one-month low\non Monday, the FTSE 100 benefited from strength in banking and commodity stocks. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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

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Financial\nadvice is key, so please do not hesitate to get in contact with any questions\nor concerns you may have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s likely households will face a cost-of-living crunch for much of the year\u201d The biggest economic story of last week is something impacting everyone\u2019s pockets \u2013 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% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4233,"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\/4232"}],"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=4232"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4236,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232\/revisions\/4236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4232"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=4232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}