{"id":7686,"date":"2022-08-17T13:35:05","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T12:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/08\/17\/news-in-review-68\/"},"modified":"2022-08-17T14:28:26","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T13:28:26","slug":"news-in-review-68","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/08\/17\/news-in-review-68\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cThese are\nchallenging times\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

In a week where droughts were\nofficially declared across England, the Office for National Statistics\u2019 (ONS)\nlatest assessment of the UK economy revealed tough economic conditions. In the second\nquarter, the UK\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.1%, largely the result\nof a 0.6% monthly dip in June. According to ONS, June\u2019s poor reading was partly\nattributable to falling retail sales and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Bank\nHoliday, which resulted in two fewer working days.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Despite the headline negativity,\nhowever, there were positive contributions from consumer-facing services, including\ntourism and the arts. Responding to the data, Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi\nventured that \u201cthe contraction is partly because of some of the COVID\nactivities reducing but also real resilience in the private sector which\nactually in many ways bodes well.\u201d \u201cNevertheless\u201d,<\/em> he admitted, \u201cthese\nare challenging times.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Employment resilience<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

On Tuesday, the release of ONS\nemployment data indicated a small quarterly drop in the Q2 employment rate, the\nfirst time this figure has fallen since 2020. Correspondingly, there was a\nsmall increase in unemployment, with the official rate now estimated at 3.8%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Despite the quarterly rise,\nunemployment remains below pre-pandemic levels. Moreover, the number of\npayrolled employees increased across all regions, with the largest rises seen in\nLondon and Northern Ireland. Separately, a productivity flash estimate from ONS\nshowed output per hour worked remained unchanged in the second quarter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Meanwhile, the Recruitment & Employment\nConfederation (REC)\u2019s latest Labour Market Tracker revealed that the number of\nactive job adverts across the UK hit a new high for 2022 in the final week of\nJuly. New postings have been steady throughout the past two months and reached\na record 1.85 million in the week of 25-31 July. Kate Shoesmith, the Confederation\u2019s\nDeputy CEO, commented, \u201cThis new data shows the continued strength of the\njobs market, despite any wider economic uncertainty<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Fall in real pay<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

While average pay rose by 4.7% between April and\nJune, according to ONS data released on Tuesday, the cost of living is\noutpacing wage growth, meaning that the real value of pay fell by 3%. Private sector wages grew by 5.9% while those working in the\npublic sector saw pay growth of 1.8% which according to Darren Morgan, Director\nof Economic Statistics at the ONS is the “largest difference we have\nseen for 20 years.\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Positive US news<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Positive news came from the US last\nWednesday, with the announcement that the annual inflation rate had eased to\n8.5% in July. Although still high, the rate is comfortably below the 9.1%\nrecorded a month earlier. The easing was largely the result of falling petrol\nprices, which recorded a monthly drop of 7.7%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Manufacturing output in the US rebounded by 0.7%\nlast month after declining by 0.4% in June, the Federal Reserve said on\nTuesday. A Reuters poll of economists had forecast factory production would\nrise by 0.2%. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Drought announced<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

The Environment Agency\nlast week declared drought conditions in eight regions across the south and\neast of England, with experts now warning the drought could carry on into next\nyear. The Environment Agency confirmed that Yorkshire was added to the\ndrought list. Last month, England experienced its driest July since\n1935, causing worries for the natural environment and farming. Indeed, a survey\nreleased this week by the National Farmers\u2019 Union found that dry weather, as\nwell as worker shortages, has already resulted in \u00a322m of fruit and vegetables\ngoing to waste in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

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

\n

London\u2019s FTSE 100 hit its highest\nlevel in more than two months on Tuesday, with a good performance in the mining\nsector and a mixed response to UK employment data. The top share index ended the session up 0.36%<\/strong> at 7,536.06.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Brent crude oil prices remained under pressure\nfollowing Monday\u2019s weak economic numbers from China, which is one of the\nbiggest buyers of natural resources. The price dropped to around $92 a barrel\non Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

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

\n

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

\n

The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may not get\nback the full amount you invested. The past is not a guide to future\nperformance and past performance may not necessarily be repeated.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

All details are correct at time of\nwriting (17 August 2022)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThese are challenging times\u201d In a week where droughts were officially declared across England, the Office for National Statistics\u2019 (ONS) latest assessment of the UK economy revealed tough economic conditions. In the second quarter, the UK\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.1%, largely the result of a 0.6% monthly dip in June. According to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7689,"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\/7686"}],"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=7686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7704,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7686\/revisions\/7704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7686"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=7686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}