UK Housing Market Focus Emergency Budget 2010: Tough but tender This was a Budget with two faces. The total discretionary tightening will build up to 8% of GDP per annum by 2015-16, larger than Canada’s in the 1990s, but smaller than Sweden’s and Finland’s. 22nd June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Emergency Budget 2010: Tough but tender The new coalition Government has made an industrious start. But it still faces some major policy challenges if it is to achieve the multiple goals of sorting out the public finances, improving... 22nd June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update Budget squeeze on household finances to weigh on house prices Fears that a rise in capital gains tax would rapidly destabilise the fragile house price recovery appear to have been overdone. But the scale of the fiscal squeeze announced by the Chancellor today... 22nd June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update Budget squeeze on household finances to weigh on house prices Fears that a rise in capital gains tax would rapidly destabilise the fragile house price recovery appear to have been overdone. But the scale of the fiscal squeeze announced by the Chancellor today... 22nd June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update UK Budget Checklist This checklist is intended to help clients keep track of the important measures and numbers announced during the Chancellor’s Budget speech at 12.30pm and to provide some instant context. 22nd June 2010 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Government’s growth strategy fails to impress In our view the government’s mid to long-term growth strategy and fiscal plan is a triumph of spin over substance. Nonetheless, the markets appear willing to give the new administration the benefit of... 21st June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly The Budget squeeze will hurt Last week’s interim forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) sprung something of a surprise in revealing a lower projected path for public borrowing over the next five years than that... 21st June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Data Response Public Finances (May) May’s public finance figures continued the recent run of slightly better than expected news on the fiscal position. But the big picture is still that a major fiscal squeeze looms, with tough measures... 18th June 2010 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Russian reforms a small step in the right direction In a speech to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum this morning, President Medvedev unveiled a series of market-friendly reforms including changes to the capital gains tax regime and a... 18th June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Data Response Public Finances (May) May’s public finance figures continued the recent run of slightly better than expected news on the fiscal position. But the big picture is still that a major fiscal squeeze looms, with tough measures... 18th June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update What if the emergency Budget raises VAT? There is clearly a strong chance that Tuesday’s emergency Budget contains a rise in VAT. While this might make the MPC’s job a bit trickier, we doubt that it would push the Committee into raising... 17th June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update What if the emergency Budget raises VAT? There is clearly a strong chance that Tuesday’s emergency Budget contains a rise in VAT. While this might make the MPC’s job a bit trickier, we doubt that it would push the Committee into raising... 17th June 2010 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Update Fiscal plans fall well short The manifestos for next month’s Upper House elections published today show a worrying lack of urgency or ambition in their commitments to sort out Japan’s dire public finances. In particular, the... 17th June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Emergency Budget Preview The new Governments emergency Budget on June 22 will mark the beginning of the biggest fiscal squeeze seen since the end of the Second World War. This will act as a significant drag on the economy... 15th June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update OBR forecasts do not point to a soft Budget The lower path of public borrowing projected by the Office for Budget Responsibility might seem to relieve some of the pressure for an additional fiscal tightening in next week’s Budget. But we don’t... 14th June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update OBR forecasts do not point to a soft Budget The lower path of public borrowing projected by the Office for Budget Responsibility might seem to relieve some of the pressure for an additional fiscal tightening in next week’s Budget. But we don’t... 14th June 2010 · 1 min read
