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1 month ago | 
investorschronicle.co.uk | Rosie CarrPublished |Rosie Carr
A week of turmoil on global stock markets was brought to an abrupt halt this week when US President Donald Trump backed down on his hardline approach to tariffs. Markets had shed trillions of dollars of value and suffered their steepest declines in years in the aftermath of Trump’s imposition of aggressive tariffs on trading partners designed to bring an end to what he views as America’s “unilateral economic surrender”. He’s made his point loud and clear.
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1 month ago | 
investorschronicle.co.uk | Rosie CarrPublished |Rosie Carr
The Spring Statement is no longer meant to be a significant event. Labour’s new approach is to have one annual Budget to allow people and businesses to have a clear picture of the next 12 months. But that may be easier said than done. Events are conspiring against the chancellor, and so much has changed in recent months in terms of the state of the nation’s finances that the spring assessments and forecasts have assumed even greater significance than before.
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2 months ago | 
investorschronicle.co.uk | Rosie CarrPublished |Rosie Carr
Global trade has been through a difficult few years. It’s been affected by the pandemic, pirates and impassable canals thanks to stranded ships and droughts. Now it faces a tariff war as Donald Trump implements his election promise to put ‘America first’.
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2 months ago | 
investorschronicle.co.uk | Rosie CarrPublished |Rosie Carr
If you breathed a sigh of relief last year when global heavyweight Shell ultimately decided against leaving London for New York, you might have been premature in discounting the chances of such a cataclysmic departure. If anything, the risk that several of London’s largest listed companies might depart these shores through choice or takeover has risen, not reduced. As far as Shell goes, 2025 is a critical year.
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Feb 13, 2025 | 
investorschronicle.co.uk | Rosie CarrPublished |Rosie Carr
Cutting rates by a quarter of a point this month was an easy decision for the Bank of England (BoE), even though inflation is expected to reach 3.7 per cent this year and a return to the target rate may be three years away. Given the fragile state of the economy, the Monetary Policy Committee had little choice. The BoE now believes 2025 GDP growth will be 0.7 per cent, down from a previous forecast of 1.5 per cent.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
investorschronicle.co.uk | Rosie CarrPublished |Rosie Carr
It may not be fair to compare the gilt market turmoil of recent days with the bond crisis that brought down Liz Truss’s short-lived government. But dragging up the Truss episode has one significant benefit: this cautionary tale is a valuable warning for the new government on how control and credibility can be lost, and how it might be wrested back (by giving the market what it demands, rather than what the cabinet might wish for).
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
investorschronicle.co.uk | Rosie CarrPublished |Rosie Carr
Keir Starmer’s government must have hoped for an entirely different first six months in office, one where it spent less time on the back foot, and where the storm over its October Budget and plan to appropriate an extra £40bn annually from businesses had entirely abated by now. But months before this extra revenue raising has even begun, firms remain in unforgiving and fragile mood, with the Budget mauling sitting at the heart of the gloomy prognosis for economic growth in 2025.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
investorschronicle.co.uk | Rosie CarrPublished |Rosie Carr
Business confidence is a tricky thing. It matters for investment and employment rates, and therefore economic growth. But it can evaporate as pressures mount and bosses worry about outgoings and order books. Right now business leaders are looking aghast at the juggernaut of new costs heading their way. Besides the £25bn jump in National Insurance costs, there is the proposed package of workers’ rights which is expected to cost around £5bn.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
investorschronicle.co.uk | Rosie CarrPublished |Rosie Carr
Britain’s pension funds are undergoing an overhaul. A big chunk of this £3tn industry has caught the eye of the current chancellor, as it did the previous one, and has been found wanting. Too fragmented, too timid and too focused on charges to the detriment of all else. That’s a useful state of affairs for a chancellor looking for an enormous pot of money to help the government deliver on big growth promises.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
investorschronicle.co.uk | Rosie CarrPublished |Rosie Carr
One of the unintended consequences of the recent Budget is the dark cloud it has cast over the macro landscape. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey could not have been clearer when he declared last week that the policies announced by Rachel Reeves are expected to raise inflation, while companies, particularly those in the people-intensive service sectors, have been vocal about the pressure they will now be under to put prices up to soften the blow of a £25bn Budget hit.
