Former BoE governor Mervyn King: Coronavirus crash worse than financial crisis March 23, 2020 Former Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King has said the impact of the coronavirus outbreak will be much worse than the 2008 financial crisis. King, who led the Bank during the crisis, also said the country should be prepared for much higher borrowing as a result of economic policies to limit the fallout from [...]
UK job security perception plunges as coronavirus spreads March 23, 2020 Britons are more worried about their employment prospects than at any time since 2011 as confidence in the economy plunges due to the coronavirus pandemic, a survey has shown. UK consumers also plan to slash their spending on major purchases at the fastest rate since 2012, data firm IHS Markit’s household finance index showed today. [...]
ECB board member: Launch common Eurozone bonds amid coronavirus March 23, 2020 A European Central Bank (ECB) board member has called on governments to consider launching a common bond so as to stave off another sovereign debt crisis amid the coronavirus outbreak. Carlos Costa, who is also governor of the Bank of Portugal, said issuing a “coronabond” would stop financial markets from targeting the “weakest link”. There [...]
Coronavirus could drag UK to recession worse than 2008 financial crash March 23, 2020 The coronavirus outbreak could drag the UK into a recession even more severe than the financial crash of 2008, according to new forecasts published today. The UK economy is expected to contract 2.6 per cent this year assuming the pandemic can be contained by the summer, according to KPMG’s latest quarterly economic outlook. However, a [...]
Wall Street suffers worst week since 2008 as US imposes coronavirus restrictions March 21, 2020 Wall Street saw further losses on Friday to continue the recent rout as it suffered its worst week since the financial crisis of 2008. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes were down more than four per cent on Friday despite making gains earlier on. All three major indexes registered their biggest weekly declines since [...]
GBP / EUR update March 20, 2020 | City Talk As everywhere across the world, everything in the UK has been accelerating at pace and the pound has paid the price. Whilst not always at the bottom of the pile, sterling has been struggling and hit a 35-year low against the US dollar. Measures to address all aspects of the crisis were well-received by investors [...]
Chancellor Rishi Sunak to announce wage bailout plan March 20, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to announce a massive wage bailout package today to battle the UK coronavirus outbreak. Business groups yesterday pressed the government to step in to help pay workers’ wages. They want protection for millions of jobs as the number of UK coronavirus cases spiked again. Britain’s death toll from coronavirus reached [...]
Bank of England cancels stress tests over coronavirus March 20, 2020 The Bank of England has cancelled this year’s stress test of major banks in Britain, saying it could be hard to implement new global capital rules while lenders are focused on supporting customer lending amid the coronavirus pandemic. The central bank’s decision to scrap the test of the UK’s eight top banks comes after the [...]
Coronavirus to spark “severe” global recession March 20, 2020 | City Talk The coronavirus is having a severe effect on global economic activity and amidst considerable uncertainty we have attempted to gauge the impact and updated our forecasts. We now expect to see the world economy contract this year by 3.1%, before rebounding by 7.2% in 2021. The forecast incorporates a severe recession in the first half [...]
Bank of England slashes rates to historic low amid coronavirus pandemic March 19, 2020 The Bank of England has slashed interest rates to a new record low and will pump £200bn into the economy through its quantitative easing (QE) bond-buying programme as it seeks to curb the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The Bank today held an emergency meeting and cut its main rate by 15 basis (0.15 percentage [...]
