UK Economics Focus What does Brexit mean for the public finances? It appears likely that the Chancellor won’t ramp up austerity to offset the negative impact of Brexiton the public finances. Instead, we think he will increase borrowing further relative to... 21st July 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus How will policymakers respond to the Brexit vote? The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is likely to look through the inflationary consequences of the drop in the pound seen since the Brexit vote and focus instead on cushioning the... 11th July 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus The implications of the digital revolution Professor Sir Charles Bean’s recent report on UK statistics suggested that the rise of the “digital economy” is not being adequately captured by the official economic figures. If true, this could go... 27th June 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Will investment income eliminate the current account deficit? The main culprit for the UK’s huge current account deficit is the recent deterioration in the UK’s investment income balance. While we expect some of this to be cyclical, we doubt that we will see a... 20th June 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus What to expect after the referendum result We have written plenty about the economic effects of both a “remain” and “leave” vote, but in reality it is not that clear-cut. In either scenario, whether the vote is won by a small or large margin... 16th June 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus The implications of a vote to stay in the EU If the UK votes to stay in the EU, we expect a kneejerk strengthening in financial markets, although any rise in the pound might be short-lived. The economic recovery would quickly get back on track... 25th May 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Is the economic slowdown about more than Brexit? Brexit concerns have not been the only driver of the recent slowdown, suggesting that we should not expect a particularly big rebound in activity if the UK votes to stay in the EU in June. At the same... 11th May 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus What would a Brexit mean for Scotland? This Thursday marks the date that the Scottish government had pencilled in for “independence day” if Scotland had voted to leave the UK in 2014’s independence referendum. So it seems a particularly... 22nd March 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Budget 2016: Safety first Whether the chancellor meets his objective of eliminating the budget deficit by the end of this parliament depends upon how well the economy performs. Because we are more optimistic than the OBR about... 16th March 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus The UK’s trade deficit is all the euro-zone’s fault For all the hopes of a rebalancing towards exports, the UK’s trade deficit with the rest of the world has barely narrowed since the financial crisis. Our analysis suggests that a chronic lack of... 10th March 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Budget 2016 Preview With the Chancellor constrained by both the public finances and a desire not to rock the boat ahead of the EU referendum, this Budget is unlikely to be a radical affair. Any changes to the borrowing... 9th March 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Short-term costs of a Brexit wouldn’t derail recovery Although we think that the UK will do well in the long run whether inside or outside of the EU, there is clearly potential for a disruptive short-term impact from the uncertainty that would be seen... 2nd March 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus How much of an inflationary threat is the labour market? The labour market has been rapidly tightening, but there are reasons to think that this won’t feed into a surge in wage growth soon. Indeed, we think there is at least some slack left in the labour... 25th February 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Will fiscal policy derail the recovery? Contrary to what many newspaper headlines claimed after the Autumn Statement towards the end of last year, we have not reached the end of austerity. Not in the slightest. However, we think that the... 8th February 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus How far and how fast will inflation and interest rates rise? The tumble in inflation from the most recent peak of just over 5% in late-2011 to an average of 0% in 2015 has provided a welcome boost to the economy. But with near-zero rates of inflation now in the... 2nd February 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Can consumers continue to shoulder the recovery? Yesterday’s GDP figures showed that growth in Q4 was entirely driven by the services sector, suggesting that consumer spending continued to shoulder the economic recovery at the end of last year. And... 29th January 2016 · 1 min read