UK Economics Weekly Industrial Production, Construction & Trade (Dec.) Today’s economic activity data added to other evidence suggesting that the economy maintained a significant amount of momentum at the end of 2016 and implies that GDP growth is becoming more balanced. 10th February 2017 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Where do the risks to the MPC’s forecasts lie? Last week’s Inflation Report saw the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) seemingly abandon “Project Fear” in favour of “Project Optimism”. Indeed, the MPC seemed upbeat on growth prospects and relaxed... 3rd February 2017 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Q4’s growth deals another blow to project fear The solid 0.6% expansion in UK GDP in the fourth quarter of last year provided further evidence that the vote to leave the European Union has so far had little discernible adverse effect on the UK... 27th January 2017 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Rising wage growth won’t worry the MPC While the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has stated that it is willing to look through a period of exchange-rate driven above-target inflation, one of its conditions is that there are no significant... 20th January 2017 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Should we worry about a consumer boom? The recent strong growth of unsecured household borrowing has prompted concerns that, far from snapping their wallets shut in response to Brexit worries, UK consumers have embarked on another credit... 13th January 2017 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Are even we too pessimistic on growth? While we have been considerably more upbeat than other forecasters about the outlook for the UK economy in 2017, the positive tone of recent indicators suggests that even we might have been a bit too... 6th January 2017 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Taking stock, six months after the referendum As well as being the end of the year, it is now six months since the UK voted to leave the EU and so it is a good time to take stock of where we are, what we got right, what we got wrong, and what to... 23rd December 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics National Accounts & Balance of Payments (Q3) The latest Quarterly National Accounts suggest that the economy grew more quickly after the referendum than previously estimated. Moreover, the latest surveys suggest that the economy will turn in... 23rd December 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Should inflation expectations concern the MPC? The MPC has not surprisingly emphasised the importance of inflation expectations in determining the degree to which it is prepared to tolerate an overshoot of the inflation target. After all, low... 16th December 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly How long will the consumer spending spree last? There are concerns that the expected rise in inflation will cause consumer spending growth to slow sharply ahead. Indeed, households would probably have to run their saving rates far below all-time... 9th December 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly How gloomy should we be about investment? The past few weeks have brought yet more relatively upbeat economic news and the first estimate of investment in Q3 was no exception. But we wouldn’t read too much into a single set of figures. And... 2nd December 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Is the OBR too gloomy about Brexit? The Office for Budget Responsibility’s economic forecasts garnered more attention than usual after last week’s Autumn Statement, and have been criticised by some for being too gloomy on Brexit. On the... 25th November 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly How much support will Mr Hammond provide? The rumour mill has been a little quieter than usual. But the Chancellor is surely piecing together a package of giveaways for his Autumn Statement – perhaps something in the region of about £7bn in... 18th November 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Would a US fiscal stimulus help Hammond be bold? We have argued that there are good reasons to think that the economic ramifications for the UK of Donald Trump’s victory in the US election are unlikely to be very large. However, at the margin, his... 11th November 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly How much inflation will the MPC tolerate? We think that the upward revision to the MPC’s inflation forecast was about the right magnitude. But for the Committee to respond to this – or a greater – overshoot of the target, domestic costs... 4th November 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Strong Q3 GDP figures: trick or treat? The recent run of relatively upbeat economic data culminated last week with the preliminary estimate of Q3 GDP, which was stronger than even we had been expecting. Of course, there are some good... 28th October 2016 · 1 min read
