FTSE 100 climbs higher as China manufacturing PMI offsets US-China trade war doubts December 2, 2019 Strong Chinese manufacturing PMI pushed the FTSE 100 higher today despite a lack of progress between the US and China on a trade deal. London’s blue-chip index rose to 7,395.5 points in early trading, up 0.67 per cent. Read more: Asian stocks climb as Chinese manufacturing PMI improves France’s Cac climbed 0.65 per cent to [...]
CBI: UK economy set to slow despite Brexit deal December 2, 2019 The economy will slow next year even if Britain leaves the European Union with a Brexit deal, a new report has predicted, as business investment fails to significantly pick up. The CBI’s economic forecast is the latest report to suggest that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal will do little to help the economy in [...]
Mark Carney appointed UN climate envoy ahead of Bank of England exit December 1, 2019 Bank of England boss Mark Carney has been appointed United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance, it was announced today, as he looks towards life beyond the governor’s chair. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has tasked Carney with galvanising global finance into addressing the perils of climate change and helping limit warming to 1.5 [...]
Labour’s manifesto could break the fabric of the UK economy November 29, 2019 Labour’s manifesto would completely break the fabric of Britain’s liberal and tolerant free market economy, replacing it with a command and control centralising experiment that would do untold damage to the very people Labour claim to support. Let’s be clear; this is not a normal Labour manifesto. This Labour manifesto would uproot society to the [...]
Tories slammed by free market groups over state aid pledges November 29, 2019 Business and free market groups slammed pledges today by Boris Johnson to expand state aid for businesses if the Conservative Party win the upcoming election. In a press conference today, Johnson promised to expand Britain’s state aid regime once the UK leaves the EU. “We will back British businesses by introducing a new state aid [...]
None of the parties have a credible plan to fix the social care crisis November 29, 2019 Every day, 1.4m elderly people are left unwashed, unsupported, and without the care they need — because our social care system is broken. “Crisis” is an overused term, but in this instance, it’s no exaggeration. And people are increasingly aware of this. Recent polling commissioned by Deloitte and Reform revealed that social care is the [...]
UK services sector confidence falls further as election looms November 29, 2019 Optimism among businesses in the UK services sector fell again in the three months to November, new survey data has shown, but at a slower pace than in the previous quarter. Business and professional services firms had a worse quarter than those in the consumer realm and intend to cut back staff and reduce investment [...]
UK consumer confidence is at its lowest point since 2013 ahead of General Election November 29, 2019 Consumer confidence was flat this month as the UK waits for the outcome of the upcoming General Election and for the new government’s Brexit plan to become clear. The overall index score for consumer confidence this month was minus 14, according to the latest data from GfK. This is the same score as was recorded in [...]
UBS wealth arm pessimistic about UK earnings in 2020 November 28, 2019 UBS Global Wealth Management (GWM) has said it expects earnings growth for UK equities to flatline in 2020, regardless of which party wins the upcoming General Election. Analysts at the Swiss banking giant’s wealth arm said that if the Tory party wins and pushes through a Brexit deal, the benefits will be limited by fresh [...]
General Election 2019: Conservatives and Labour’s spending plans not credible, warns IFS November 28, 2019 Neither the Tories nor Labour have presented voters with credible tax and spending plans in their General Election manifestos, according to damning analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). Labour is unable to raise the money it wants to and the Conservatives cannot meet the pledge to balance the budget with tax freezes and [...]
