{"id":4966,"date":"2022-03-09T11:51:36","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T11:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/03\/09\/news-in-review-46\/"},"modified":"2022-07-05T14:38:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T13:38:45","slug":"news-in-review-46","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/03\/09\/news-in-review-46\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2018The situation remains highly fluid\nand the outlook is subject to extraordinary uncertainty\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Last week, as the invasion of Ukraine\nentered a second week, the President of the World Bank declared the situation \u201ca\ncatastrophe\u201d<\/em> for the world. Although <\/strong>David Malpass stressed his biggest concern is “about\nthe pure human loss of lives\u201d <\/em>he also highlighted the economic impact of\nthe war, which, although devastating for Ukraine, also stretches beyond the\ninvaded country\u2019s borders. The Bank has approved $723m in grants and loans for Ukraine.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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On Saturday, the\nInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a statement on the economic impact of the war, which\nhighlighted that\nthe already \u2018serious\u2019<\/em> global economic impacts would be \u2018all the more\ndevastating\u2019<\/em> should the conflict escalate. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The statement outlined, \u2018The war in Ukraine is resulting in tragic loss of life and human suffering, as well as causing massive damage to Ukraine\u2019s physical infrastructure… Unprecedented sanctions have been announced on Russia. While the situation remains highly fluid and the outlook is subject to extraordinary uncertainty, the economic consequences are already very serious. Energy and commodity prices – including wheat and other grains – have surged, adding to inflationary pressures from supply chain disruptions and the rebound from the COVID\u201119 pandemic. Price shocks will have an impact worldwide, especially on poor households for whom food and fuel are a higher proportion of expenses. Should the conflict escalate, the economic damage would be all the more devastating. The sanctions on Russia will also have a substantial impact on the global economy and financial markets, with significant spill overs to other countries.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Boris Johnson met with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and\nDutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday, kicking off a week of engagements\nwith global leaders, to \u2018mobilise the outcry at the\natrocities of Russian aggression into support for Ukraine.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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On Tuesday, the House of Commons was packed for an\nunprecedented address to MPs by President Zelensky. He referenced Winston\nChurchill\u2019s famous speech, saying \u201cWe will not give up and we will not lose\n\u2026<\/em> we will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the\nstreets.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Also on Tuesday, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced\nthat the UK will phase out the import of Russian oil over the course of the\nyear. This followed President Biden\u2019s announcement of a ban on Russian oil and\ngas imports after \u201cclose consultation with our allies, especially in\nEurope.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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UK growth estimates moderate<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Last week, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC)\ndowngraded its expectations for GDP growth in the UK this year from a previous\nestimate of 4.2% to 3.6%. This downgrade is reflective\nof a weaker rebound in business\ninvestment and a deteriorating outlook for consumer spending. It is\nprojected that inflation <\/strong>will outpace wage growth until Q2 2024. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Head of Economics at the BCC Suren Thiru commented on the forecast, \u201cOur latest forecast signals a significant deterioration in UK\u2019s economic outlook. The UK economy is forecast to run out of steam in the coming months as the suffocating effect of rising inflation, supply chain disruption and higher taxes weaken key drivers of UK output, including consumer spending and business investment.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Growing list of f<\/strong>irms withdraw\nfrom Russia<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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More global anti-war protests took place on\nSaturday in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, in cities including London,\nHamburg and Paris. Following previous announcements from global giants\nincluding BP, which hived off\nits stake in Russian energy giant Rosneft, plus pledges from Shell, ExxonMobil and Equinor to cut their Russian investments,\nthe flood of announcements from firms stepping\nback from Russia continues. The most recent firms pausing activities in Russia include\nApple, Jaguar Land Rover, H&M, PayPal, Prada, Mastercard, Visa, McDonalds\nand Coca-Cola.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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

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Global markets have continued to\ncount losses in the wake of the invasion. Many stocks entered the red at the\nend of last week following reports of a Russian attack on a nuclear power\nstation in Ukraine, heightening investor fears about the escalating conflict\nand sending oil prices higher. Oil prices\nspiked to their highest levels in over a decade, with the price of Brent crude reaching $139 per barrel,\nwhile the price of gold broke through $2,000 an ounce on Monday as\nLondon’s market suspended the sale of Russian bars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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

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It is essential\nthat investors focus on longer-term timescales instead of focusing too intently\non short-term volatility. Rest assured we will continue to monitor events\nclosely. 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 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":"

\u2018The situation remains highly fluid and the outlook is subject to extraordinary uncertainty\u2019 Last week, as the invasion of Ukraine entered a second week, the President of the World Bank declared the situation \u201ca catastrophe\u201d for the world. Although David Malpass stressed his biggest concern is “about the pure human loss of lives\u201d he also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6793,"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\/4966"}],"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=4966"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6794,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4966\/revisions\/6794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4966"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=4966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}