UK Economics Weekly Closer than it looks Downgrades to the Bank of England’s inflation projections in its Inflation Report last week were widely anticipated. Nonetheless, sterling’s tumble against the dollar and the euro after its release... 6th November 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Mr Osborne’s tax credit options Mr Osborne has various options to soften the impact of his cuts in tax credits, but all of them will cost him some money. Admittedly, this might “only” be a couple of billion for a couple of years... 30th October 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Both pros and cons of leaving EU often overstated Although he said that it would be “a bit of a yawner”, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s speech on the UK’s membership of the EU contained something for both the pro- and anti-Europe camps to... 23rd October 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Will Mr Osborne come to regret his “fiscal charter”? Chancellor George Osborne was last week able to pass his new “fiscal charter”, forcing current and future governments to run a budget surplus during “normal times”. But the Chancellor may come to... 16th October 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Is the recovery running out of steam? A raft of gloomy survey data has fuelled fears that the UK’s economic recovery is running out of steam. There are some indications that quarterly GDP growth will moderate from 0.7% in Q2 to 0.5% or so... 9th October 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly (Almost) all good news on the economy The economic picture is a little more nuanced than the seemingly relentless barrage of good news last week might have suggested. But the upshot is that we are still feeling pretty good about the... 2nd October 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Public finances should come good again soon Last week’s public finance figures suggested that deficit reduction has hit a roadblock. But the path of reduction has hardly been a completely smooth one so far. And the strong economic recovery in... 25th September 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Faster wage growth unlikely to panic MPC Although the US Fed kept interest rates on Thursday, a rate rise across the pond is not far away. And on the face of it, the pick-up in UK pay growth revealed last week suggested that the Bank of... 18th September 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly UK should weather rising US interest rates well Even if the US Fed holds fire this week, US interest rates will be rising soon – and, in our view, quicker than markets expect. Turning points in UK monetary policy are often close to US ones. But... 11th September 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Should we worry about “Corbynomics”? If the polls are anything to go by, left-leaning Jeremy Corbyn will be elected as the next leader of the Labour Party on 12 th of September. This has prompted a heated debate over his economic... 4th September 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly More “good” deflation to boost consumer recovery Turbulence in financial markets once again overshadowed some positive economic developments on the domestic front last week. Indeed, Q2’s second estimate of GDP showed that the recovery in household... 28th August 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Consumers to remain confident despite equity rout The FTSE 100’s sharp decline last week, leaving it 10% below its peak in April, certainly won’t lift consumers’ spirits but it is unlikely to be large enough to dissuade them from continuing to spend... 21st August 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly A storm in a China teacup? Headlines have recently been captured by last week’s shock move by the People’s Bank of China to lower the daily reference rate for the renminbi. However, we doubt that this will have much bearing on... 14th August 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly MPC still too cautious on productivity Once again, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) surprised many by the extent of its downward revision to the inflation forecast in its latest Inflation Report and the Governor poured cold water on... 7th August 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Another milestone for the economic recovery Last week’s GDP figures indicated that the economic recovery has passed another milestone, namely that GDP per capita is now back to its pre-crisis levels. Admittedly, it has taken an extremely long... 31st July 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Stronger GDP figures won’t rush the MPC The preliminary estimate of Q2 GDP on Tuesday looks set to show that the economic recovery has re-gained some momentum. However, the recent strength of the survey data has not been borne out fully in... 24th July 2015 · 1 min read
