Economics
One in five Brits trapped in working poverty
A damning study has today revealed one in five Brits are now trapped in working poverty as inflation continues to outpace wage growth. Ahead of Living Wage week (6-12 November), KPMG’s annual Living Wage report reveals 21 per cent of people in the UK are still earning below the real Living Wage, meaning that an estimated 5.5 million employees are struggling to get out of in-work poverty. Around 59 percent of those earning below the real Living Wage indicated a sharp...
These are the jawdropping stats about the 10 years since last interest rate rise
The Bank of England has raised interest rates today for the first time in more than ten years. The official bank rate has been lifted from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent, the first increase since July 2007. Almost four million households face higher mortgage interest payments after the rise, raising concerns as families struggle to battle rising inflation and stagnant wages. Of the 8.1 million households with a mortgage, 3.7 million, or 46 per cent, are on either...
Brexit has “almost certainly” cost £600 per household
As we all know Brexit has not happened yet, however the UK economy already appears to be straining under the uncertainty of our withdrawal from the EU. Food prices are rising, property prices in London are falling, sterling has dropped against other currencies and large sections banking sector appears to be planning to shift operations to Frankfurt. Now the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) have said that as sterling has plummeted since the vote back in June...
Populist politicians are “weaponizing trade”
Populist politicians are weaponizing trade to the determent of the global economy, a new book has claimed. As politicians on both sides of the Atlantic raise the stakes, trade is increasingly becoming a tool of coercion to achieve strategic influence. Although trade, wars and foreign policy have been interwoven throughout history, the belligerence of the language today means trade is becoming predominantly political and strategic, rather than economic. Politicians have resorted to economic nationalism, using the rhetoric of conflict to...
5 indications that the UK economy is on the brink of a collapse
Economic experts have today suggested the UK should reverse Brexit in order to avoid the severe consequences of a messy breakup. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report that puts forward the case for a dramatic rethink on the agenda. Its findings have already been hailed as the “final nail in the coffin for the already long-buried notion that Brexit will benefit our economy”. But even with EU negotiations stalled there are growing signs that the UK economy...
Lowest income families hit hardest by inflation – here’s why
Inflation has hit the lowest income families hardest since recession because they spend the most proportionally of any income group on utilities, which have shot up in price over the decade. Lower income families are also likely to have been hardest by inflation since Brexit, due to the rise in the price of food and non-food essential items, which they spend disproportionately more on. While many ‘big ticket’ items have actually fallen in price over the last 20 years: cars are 12...
Public sector workers “at breaking point” as inflation hits 3%
More misery for five million public sector workers as their wages take yet another hammering GMB says public sector workers are at breaking point as inflation hits three per cent. The latest ONS figures show CPI is up to 3 per cent from 2.9 per cent - a five-and-a-half year high. The rise means more than five million public sector workers will see an even bigger real terms wage cut due to the pay cap. On average, each public sector...
Britain is actually £490 billion poorer than we thought ONS reveals
Shock figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that Britain is £490 billion poorer than was thought. Britain’s stock of wealth has fallen from a surplus of of £469 billion to a net deficit of £22 billion. The UK has totally lost its reserve of foreign assets, and is actually in a much more vulnerable deficit, losing any safety margin just Theresa May’s government is attempting a breakthrough in a crucial stage of Brexit negotiations. This massive...
Bilateral trade between the United Kingdom and Malaysia reaches record high levels
The United Kingdom and Malaysia have strong economic ties and a long history of partnership in different fields of economy. What is even better is that these ties will get even stronger in the next period. Namely, UK Export Finance, the popular export credit agency from the United Kingdom, has decided to boost the support for the trade between Malaysia and the United Kingdom to record-high five billion Pounds or 28.35 billion Ringgits. This is definitely good news for the...