New OBR chief says public debt sensitive to rate moves October 7, 2020 The new head of the UK’s budget watchdog has said the country’s public finances have become more sensitive to changes in interest rates because of a change in borrowing terms. However, Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) board member Sir Charlie Bean said people should not think there is “great urgency” in closing the government’s budget [...]
UK house prices jump again in September as market defies gravity October 7, 2020 UK house prices rose at the fastest pace in four years in September despite the raging coronavirus pandemic as people working from home sought more space, according to the Halifax house price index. Yet the lender said it is “unlikely” that the British housing market will “remain immune” to the historic economic slowdown. House prices [...]
Fall in German factory output a temporary setback, economists say October 7, 2020 German factory output unexpectedly fell in August, raising alarm bells about the health of Europe’s biggest economy. But economists have backed the sector to resume its mixed recovery in September. Industrial output fell 0.2 per cent in August after rising 1.4 per cent in July, the Federal Statistics Office said today. The August figure was [...]
Be brave Mr Sunak… and keep spending October 7, 2020 Since Rishi Sunak stepped into the suddenly vacant 11 Downing Street back in February, he’s proved a fleet-footed chancellor, earning praise for the speed at which he launched the furlough programme, provided cash support to struggling companies, and stood behind the economy as the pandemic took hold. He quickly realised that extraordinary times required extraordinary [...]
Following the science? This government lacks a basic grasp of the scientific method October 7, 2020 Verification and validation. It is hard to imagine a more nerdy phrase. But it is, in essence, how science makes progress. It is what we have to do to check whether a scientific claim or theory is correct. And it has been seriously neglected during the Covid-19 crisis. Just over a century ago, for example, [...]
Fed’s Jay Powell: Too much stimulus is better than too little October 6, 2020 It is better for US policymakers to do too much to try to help the economy than to do too little, US Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell said in some of his most pointed comments about stimulus to date. Powell told the National Association for Business Economics that the recovery from the coronavirus lockdowns of [...]
Finance ministers give EU recovery fund the green light October 6, 2020 European Union finance ministers gave the green light to the €750bn (£682bn) coronavirus recovery fund that was first outlined by the bloc’s leaders in July. It means the European Council – the heads of EU states and the bloc’s top brass – can now negotiate the details of the fund with the European Parliament. Following [...]
IMF and WTO: Economy brighter than expected but big risks remain October 6, 2020 The hit to global growth and trade from the coronavirus pandemic will not be as bad as previously feared, although the recovery remains highly fragile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organization (WTO) have said. IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said the international organisation would make a “small” upgrade to its prediction that the [...]
UK businesses borrowed more in one quarter than in whole of 2019 October 6, 2020 British businesses borrowed 50 per cent more in the second quarter of 2020 than in the whole of the previous year as the coronavirus crisis hammered the economy, new figures show. Businesses borrowed a total of £34.5bn in the three months to the end of June, according to a report by banking lobby group UK [...]
Rishi Sunak signals that tax hikes will be delayed for some time October 6, 2020 Rishi Sunak has signalled he will hold off on tax rises and Budget cuts until the UK’s economic recovery is further along. Sunak said today that the UK needs to balance its books “over time”, just a day after saying at his conference speech that the Tories had a “sacred responsibility to future generations to [...]
