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. …
Has the Chancellor tightened policy too much?
Framed as a budget to shrink debt and control inflation, Jeremy Hunt’s statement in the fifth fiscal event of this year essentially left most of the heavy lifting to 2025 and beyond. Of the measures announced, some three quarters were spending cuts, and just one quarter were tax increases. Of the £61.7 billion fiscal tightening …
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