At its February 2023 Monetary Policy meeting, the Bank of England signalled the peak in the Bank rate had been reached. What are the likely reasons for this? Ten interest rate hikes have taken the rate from 0.1% to 4%. The effect has been a housing market in sharp reverse, business failures beginning to rise, …
Annus horribilus – yet another lost year
Optimism at the start of 2022 that, with the end of the pandemic, the UK was on the cusp of a period of robust and steady growth, was dashed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February. Although the headline average annual growth rate is 4%, it is highly misleading. The economy is in recession. …
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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