UK Economics Update What will this recession look like? We expect a recession in 2022/23 to be driven by high inflation, with a contraction in real consumer spending at its epicentre. But with household and corporate balance sheets still relatively healthy... 11th August 2022 · 3 mins read
UK Economics Increased risk of “second-round” effects We’ve been warning for some time that CPI inflation would rise further than most people expect, triggering a recession. The prospect of even bigger rises in utility prices on 1 st October and in the... 10th August 2022 · 9 mins read
UK Economics Rising interest costs will add to the pain for households A rise in Bank Rate to a peak of 3.00% wouldn’t dent real consumer spending anywhere near as much as the drag from surging inflation over the coming quarters. That said, it would only compound the... 9th August 2022 · 4 mins read
UK Economics Weekly What the BoE told us and what it didn't We have been saying for some time that despite a recession, the Bank of England would be forced to raise interest rates. The Bank of England's signal that it is stepping up the fight against high... 5th August 2022 · 7 mins read
UK Economics Update Stagflation may require rate hikes to 3% and cuts thereafter While raising interest rates by 50 basis points (bps) today, from 1.25% to 1.75%, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) suggested that rates will probably have to rise further to knock on the head the... 4th August 2022 · 3 mins read
UK Data Response Money & Credit (Jun.) The chunky increase in unsecured borrowing in June suggests that households are having to rely more on credit due to the cost of living crisis. But households won’t be able to fully offset the hit to... 29th July 2022 · 3 mins read
BoE Watch Stepping up the fight We expect the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to step up its fight against high inflation at its meeting on Thursday 4 th August by raising interest rates by 50 basis points (bps), from 1.25% to 1.75%... 28th July 2022 · 9 mins read
UK Economics Looser fiscal/tighter monetary mix whoever is the Prime Minister If members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had hoped that this week's data releases would provide a clear steer on whether to follow other major central banks and raise interest rates by at... 22nd July 2022 · 4 mins read
UK Data Response S&P Global/CIPS Flash PMIs (Jul.) Spending on travel and leisure is supporting activity and has so far prevented the UK composite flash PMI from joining the euro-zone’s PMI in contraction territory. Perhaps even more encouraging was... 22nd July 2022 · 3 mins read
UK Data Response Retail Sales (Jun.) Although June’s retail sales figures were boosted in some areas by the extra Jubilee bank holiday and dragged down in others, the underlying trend is that the surge in prices is weighing on sales... 22nd July 2022 · 2 mins read
UK Economics Consumer Prices (Jun.) There are some encouraging signs that the upward pressure on underlying inflation from global factors has started to ease. But as it is being replaced by stronger upward pressure from domestic factors... 20th July 2022 · 3 mins read
UK Economics Labour Market (May/Jun.) The strong rise in the supply of workers in May helped to take some of the heat out of the labour market. Even so, the sharp increase in employment and pick-up in wage growth supports our view that... 19th July 2022 · 3 mins read
UK Economics The policies of the 5 wanting to be in Number 10 Even though the two candidates that are leading the race to be the next Prime Minister have pledged to loosen fiscal policy by less than the other candidates, whoever takes over as Prime Minister on 6... 15th July 2022 · 9 mins read
UK Economics Too soon to conclude inflation won’t become more persistent It’s too soon to conclude that the weak tone of this week’s news on activity means that inflation won’t become more persistent. Our proprietary measure of underlying/persistent CPI inflation rose to a... 24th June 2022 · 5 mins read
UK Economics Retail Sales (May) The fall in retail sales in May suggests that the decline in households’ real incomes from surging inflation is starting to hit consumer spending a bit harder. Even so, consumer spending appears to be... 24th June 2022 · 3 mins read
UK Economics S&P Global/CIPS Flash PMIs (Jun.) The fact that the composite PMI didn’t fall in June means the economy could be holding up a little better than we and the Bank of England had feared. Beneath the headline numbers, the survey also... 23rd June 2022 · 3 mins read
