The US Federal Reserve or Fed, and the UK Central Bank or the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC,) both made the decision on whether to cut interest rates on the same day, although, given the time difference, it happened at different points. The US Fed cut interest rates by ½% to a range of 4.75% to …
An election Budget that does not address UK challenges
It’s hard to find anything to like in the Autumn Statement delivered by Jeremy Hunt. While on the surface, the 2% cut in National Insurance contributions seems like a good idea, it looks worse the more you examine what it means and its implications. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) references to the ‘headroom’ to …
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A Budget for ‘Growth’ or for ‘Stability’
Today’s UK budget is called ‘the budget for growth’ with the four E’s of enterprise, education, employment, and everywhere. Jeremy Hunt heavily trailed the latter in a speech he made at Bloomberg’s offices in January. Many of the proposals in the Budget were as expected and were known by the media. In other words, there …