Bank of England makes £3.8bn profit from Liz Truss mini budget bond sales January 12, 2023 The Bank of England has trousered £3.8bn in profits from ditching bonds it hoovered up to stem financial chaos caused by Liz Truss’s calamitous mini-budget, the central bank told City PM The Bank announced today it has ditched all the £19.3bn of gilts purchased last autumn to stabilise the UK debt market. Governor Andrew Bailey [...]
Starmer promises Labour will deliver ‘decade of renewal’ after doubts cast over Sunak pledges January 4, 2023 A Labour government will deliver “a decade of national renewal” to show “the light at the end of the tunnel” for the British people, opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer will claim in his first speech of 2023 tomorrow. Speaking in Stratford, East London, Starmer, 60, is set to characterise the more than decade of Conservative [...]
2022: The year the UK economy soured December 23, 2022 Let’s not forget that inflation was already a problem heading into 2022. The final inflation reading of 2021 was for November and came in at 5.1 per cent, nearly three times higher than the Bank of England’s two per cent target and the highest level since September 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics [...]
Hunt confirms full fat budget and OBR forecast on 15 March 2023 December 19, 2022 The government will deliver a full fat budget on 15 March next year, chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed today. The announcement will be accompanied by an assessment of the impact of the government’s tax and spending plans on the public finances by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Last month, Hunt delivered what was in effect [...]
Mini budget drama: UK banks face wave of ‘exotic’ forex derivatives claims after collapse of Pound December 15, 2022 Legal disputes between banks and their business customers are expected following the collapse in the value of sterling against the U.S. Dollar and the volatility of other currencies. The dramatic volatility of currencies over the last few months will have led to many businesses facing substantial losses from complex Forex derivatives contracts they had entered [...]
Bank of England calls for tighter rules on LDI market after mini-budget chaos December 13, 2022 Tighter oversight of the pensions industry is needed to ensure it can “withstand severe but plausible market moves” similar in size to those seen in the aftermath of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget in September, the Bank of England said today. The recommendation from the Bank’s financial policy committee (FPC) has been sparked by concerns over [...]
‘Carried away’: Kwasi Kwarteng admits Truss government ‘blew it’ over mini-budget December 10, 2022 Former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted that Liz Truss’s government “blew it” when it came to the economic reforms proposed in the mini-budget. “People got carried away, myself included,” he told the Financial Times. “There was a brief moment and the people in charge, myself included, blew it.” Kwarteng was ousted from government after he [...]
Optimism abounds in OBR forecasts, but just how feasible are they? November 28, 2022 When former Tory chancellor George Osborne created the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in 2010, he was unlikely to have envisioned it would become the source of financial market turmoil. But, that upheaval was not the budget watchdog’s fault. Instead, it was former prime minister Liz Truss and ex-Number 11 incumbent Kwasi Kwarteng’s disdain toward [...]
UK slumps to bottom of G7 economy league next year, OECD predicts November 22, 2022 The UK economy will languish behind its rich counterparts next year amid a tough inflation surge driven by worker shortages and an “untargeted” energy support package, a new report reveals. Britain’s economy will shrink 0.4 per cent next year, the worst performance of any country in the G7, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation [...]
London-based FX experts Lumon post annual growth of almost 30 per cent despite volatility October 31, 2022 A year after its rebrand, London-based payments group Lumon posted annual growth of almost 30 per cent, with its corporate division excelling. The company announced its revenue forecast for the year has gone up by 27 per cent from 2021. Its corporate division expanded over the year, up 48 per cent year on year. It [...]
