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We’ll be discussing the outlook for Bank of England, Fed and ECB policy in a 20 minute online Drop-In at 3pm BST on Thursday 19th June. (Register here .) If the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was hoping that at the end of the week of her Spending Review we’d …
13th June 2025
The overnight strikes by Israel on Iran mark a major escalation in the conflict in the region and, with the oil market tighter than it was a few months ago, the risks to oil prices look more balanced than we’d previously thought (rather than skewed to the …
Falling employment and easing wage growth suggest MPC won’t slow pace of cuts Growing chance that rates fall below 3.50% Limited influence of rate cuts pose questions over speed of QT The Bank of England will almost certainly leave interest rates at 4.25% …
12th June 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Economy coming back down to earth The fall in GDP in April supports our view that the strength of the economy in Q1 was a red herring and that GDP growth will be more subdued …
The 2025 Spending Review is the tightest (outside of the austerity years in the early 2010s) since 2000 and the tough decisions for Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, won’t end here. The government’s U-turns on benefit and welfare spending and higher borrowing …
11th June 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Looser labour market driving softer wage pressures With payrolls plunging, the unemployment rate climbing and wage growth easing, today’s labour market release leaves us more …
10th June 2025
Fiscal policy back in focus With confidence-sapping fiscal “black holes” and rises in business taxes dominating much of her first year in office, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will finally get to splash the cash by announcing a series of infrastructure …
6th June 2025
According to the measures of wage growth that we consider the most useful and the fundamentals of the recent easing in the demand for labour relative to the supply, it is only a matter of time before wage growth slows to rates that are more consistent …
4th June 2025
We'll be discussing the outlook for UK fiscal policy and the wider economy shortly after the Chancellor's Spending Review is released in a 20-minute online Drop-In at 3pm BST on Wednesday 11th June. (Register here .) The strong start to the year shouldn’t …
The suggestion that the Chancellor may be considering cutting 50,000 civil service job cuts wouldn’t weigh on employment growth much over the next few years. Only if the government were to cut public sector employment towards its post-austerity and …
2nd June 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Further signs consumers are starting to spend a bit more freely April’s money and lending figures provided little indication that the US trade war and the deteriorating jobs …
We have consistently argued that the influence of Trump’s tariffs on the UK economy would be modest. As a result, the impact on UK GDP of the eventual outcome of the US court ruling on the legality of the 10% universal tariff will probably also be small. …
30th May 2025
This report is part of our Future of Europe series. Read more analysis, explore the supporting data, and learn about our broader European coverage on the dedicated Future of Europe page. Europe is being buffeted by geopolitical and geoeconomic shifts but, …
U-turns on benefit and welfare spending, increased pressure to ramp up defence spending and higher borrowing costs have left the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in a sticky position. If she wishes to avoid a political backlash and/or an adverse reaction in the …
29th May 2025
In this Update, we answer several key questions about how the US Court of International Trade (CIT) tariff ruling might affect the US and other economies. The outlook may now rest on the decision of the Republican-stacked Supreme Court. The upside risks …
The well-known quality issues with the UK’s labour market data might well extend to some of the other UK economic data. This matters as it could have a critical bearing on policy decisions and lead to economic growth and inflation that is either too high …
27th May 2025
The headline news this week was the bigger-than-expected leap in CPI inflation from 2.6% in March to 3.5% in April. (See here .) It would be easy to conclude that most of the increase was due to one-off price rises that will stay in the inflation rate for …
23rd May 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. The sun won’t shine on the retail sector forever Although for the first time since 2015, excluding the pandemic, retail sales volumes have risen for four months in a row, April’s …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Weak economy helping to reduce upside inflation risks Despite the modest rebound in the composite activity PMI in May, at face value it is consistent with the bumper 0.7% q/q …
22nd May 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Disappointing borrowing figures highlight Chancellor’s lack of wiggle room April’s public finances figures showed that despite the boost from the rise in employers’ National …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. More than one-off rises The bigger-than-expected jump in CPI inflation in April suggests that the persistence of inflation is a bit stronger and/or businesses are passing on more …
21st May 2025
The implications of the government’s latest policies for the economy bring to mind the quote “what the right hand giveth, the left hand taketh away”. The right hand – EU reset In the right hand is the UK-EU reset, which will begin on Monday to much pomp …
16th May 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. A temporary burst rather than a sign of a fundamentally stronger economy The bumper 0.7% q/q rise in GDP in Q1 is unlikely to be repeated as a lot of it was due to a leap in …
15th May 2025
The recent climbdown has left the effective US tariff rate on the rest of the world at around 15% as opposed to the 27% which was threatened at the height of this year’s trade war. While this is still the highest since the 1930s, it is unlikely to cause a …
13th May 2025
We don’t foresee further common-currency outperformance of MSCI’s UK Index vis-à-vis its USA Index, which has largely been a function of their compositions and the strength of cable since Donald Trump’s return to the White House . This is because we …
Global Trade Stress Monitor …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Sticky wage growth will mean the Bank of England remains cautious The jobs market weakened further in the face of April’s rise in payroll taxes and the national minimum wage. But …
The cracks in the geopolitical landscape created since Trump was re-elected US President are pushing the UK back towards the EU when it comes to defence. The “EU reset” may also bring the UK closer to the EU in some economic areas, although this will …
12th May 2025
The US and China have each suspended for 90 days all but 10% of their Liberation Day tariffs and cancelled other retaliatory tariffs. This is a substantial de-escalation. However, the US still has much higher tariffs on China than on other countries and …
Five months ago, we incorporated a 10% tariff on all UK goods exports to the US in our forecast. That has turned out to be a good call. Despite this week’s UK-US trade deal, the 10% “baseline” tariff remains. (See here for our response to the US-UK trade …
9th May 2025
The UK-US trade deal announced by President Trump and Prime Minister Starmer today won’t make a big difference to the UK economy as a whole, although it is more significant for certain sectors such as cars and steel. The upcoming UK-EU reset won’t be a …
8th May 2025
More UK rate cuts coming, but not as quickly as investors expected The Bank of England predictably cut interest rates from 4.50% to 4.25% today and gave the impression that it will continue to cut rates at the current pace of 25 basis points (bps) every …
For an updated and more detailed version of this analysis, click here . More rate cuts coming, but not as quickly as the markets expect While cutting interest rates from 4.50% to 4.25% today, the Bank of England poured some cold water on the markets’ …
Although our base case remains that the hit to UK GDP growth from US tariffs will be relatively small, the downside risks to our below consensus forecast for GDP growth of 0.8% in 2025 have increased. And the growing likelihood that the influence of US …
7th May 2025
The larger-than-expected fall in the Nationwide measure of house prices in April has raised concerns about how quickly the housing market is losing momentum. After price gains of 1.1% m/m and 0.7% m/m in November and December last year, prices are down …
2nd May 2025
A 25 basis point (bps) rate cut in May is a done deal Markets have got ahead of themselves in expecting four 25bps rate cuts in 2025 But the risks are tilting towards rates being cut further than markets expect, perhaps to 3.00% The Bank of England will …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Households tighten their purse strings March’s money and lending data suggest households were starting to spend more cautiously even before the full hit to consumer confidence …
1st May 2025
The fall in market interest rate expectations since ‘Liberation Day’ is striking. On 31 st March, investors were pricing in just two more 25 basis points (bps) interest rate cuts this year from 4.50% now to 4.00%. Now they are fully pricing in three more …
25th April 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. March may be as bright as it gets as confidence slides March’s rise in retail sales volumes meant sales rebounded by an impressive 1.6% q/q in Q1, rounding off a …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Tariffs dampening activity but not yet inflation The marked fall in the composite PMI in April raises the chances that the uncertainty stemming from the US tariffs chaos will be …
23rd April 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Fiscal position worse than OBR predicted even before US tariffs bite March’s public finances figures showed that public borrowing was overshooting the OBR’s forecast even before …
The news on inflation this week was pretty good even before any influence from the US tariffs chaos has been felt. Although average earnings growth stayed close to 6.0% in February, pay growth on the more timely PAYE measure slowed to 5.4%. (See here .) …
17th April 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Dip in inflation won’t last, but weak economy will quash inflation eventually The dip in CPI inflation from 2.8% in February to 2.6% in March (CE forecast 2.6%, consensus 2.7%) …
16th April 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Jobs growth weakens with more to come While the jobs market weakened further, there were few signs this is feeding through to slower wage growth. But if the more uncertain …
15th April 2025
The extraordinary tariff chaos over the past week and associated fallout in the financial markets (see our coverage here ) have increased the chances that the damage to the UK from the US trade war will be larger and that inflation and interest rates will …
11th April 2025
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Surprisingly strong growth to prove short-lived, as rises in tariffs and taxes bite The surprisingly strong 0.5% m/m rise in GDP in February (consensus +0.1%, CE 0.0%) and the …
President Trump’s trade war has created material downside risks for the global economy. Our forecasts assume that tariffs on most countries outside China will stay at 10% and retaliation by other governments will be moderate. In this scenario, global GDP …
10th April 2025
Despite President Trump’s latest decision to pause the US’s “reciprocal” tariff regime for 90 days, there is still a real risk that the second-order effects of higher US tariffs on the UK economy are bigger and that UK inflation and interest rates fall …
With President Trump announcing reciprocal tariffs of 34% and 20% on all US imports from China and the European Union respectively this week, the news that UK goods exports to the US will be subject to the minimum 10% “baseline” tariff from 5 th April …
4th April 2025
We hosted two online Drop-In sessions on 3 rd April to discuss the fallout from President Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcement. (See a recording here .) This Update contains answers to some of the questions that we received and links to several more …
3rd April 2025
