As the campaign to become the leader of the Conservative party and therefore Prime Minister of the UK is whittled down to the final two candidates, the economy continues to struggle. It has shown paltry growth since the crisis of 2007/8, mainly down to poor productivity. ‘Levelling up’, Brexit, none of these has changed that …
Why the UK current account deficit matters
What do Russian oligarchs, the selling of UK companies to foreign investors and the slide in the pound all have in common? The answer is they all help to fund the UK’s growing current account deficit. And it is indeed widening. In Q1 2022, the UK’s trade deficit was £33.4bn, and the current account deficit …
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How high will the UK interest rate go?
With inflation continuing to rise and central banks reacting by raising interest rates, the critical question must be how high will rates have to rise to curb inflationary pressure? To do that, we need to consider what a ‘neutral’ interest rate – one that kept prices steady – would look like, and how much higher …