The Bank of England’s decision to hold interest rates at 3.75% today was no great surprise, but the 5-4 vote was much closer than most had anticipated. Unfortunately, this dovish tilt owes more to rising concerns about growth and jobs than it does to increasing optimism about inflation, even though the two are of course related. In … Continue reading Bank of England remains in the slow lane on rate cuts
Tag: investing
Why Labour shouldn’t try to claim credit for the FTSE’s record highs
A couple of weeks ago, the Chancellor was widely criticised for calling the FTSE 100’s climb past 10,000 a “vote of confidence in Britain’s economy”. As many commentators pointed out at the time (including myself), the FTSE 100 is dominated by large global companies, while the more domestically focused FTSE 250 has underperformed. I would … Continue reading Why Labour shouldn’t try to claim credit for the FTSE’s record highs
Why the Bank of England should sit tight this week
The UK interest rate decision this week is finely balanced – so much so that I was not even sure which way I would vote. Nonetheless, over the course of writing this piece I have persuaded myself to switch to ‘no change’, even though the actual decision is still likely to be a cut. This … Continue reading Why the Bank of England should sit tight this week
Budget speculation kills growth
The further contraction in the UK economy in October confirms that Budget speculation has killed growth, with GDP falling by 0.1% on both the single month and three month on three month comparisons. What’s more, the weakness was broad based (so not just the fallout from cyber attack at JLR). But this leaves some important questions to … Continue reading Budget speculation kills growth
Plain-speaking Economics 