Week Ending 11th June 2021 U.S. equities eked out a gain in choppy trading as investors continued to assess the outlook for inflation and the path of Federal Reserve monetary policy. Ten-year Treasury yields held at around the lowest since March. Friday’s advance of 0.2% came a day after the S&P 500 notched its first […]

France in double-dip recession as figures show first quarter worse than thought Europe’s second biggest economy is emerging from a third lockdown which has taken a renewed toll on spending this spring. France has suffered a double-dip recession according to revised official figures that showed it had a worse start to the year than previously […]

A closely-watched survey of business activity has shown its best reading on record as a vaccine-driven reopening of the economy gets into gear. The IHS Markit/CIPS flash composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for May, which covers both manufacturing and services and is updated later in the month, credited a surge in growth and employment to […]

The Bank of England has upgraded its growth forecast for the coronavirus-hit UK economy and signalled it will not raise interest rates in the near term – despite seeing a looming spike in inflation ahead. The latest meeting of the central bank’s interest rate-setting committee left policy unchanged, with rates remaining at their COVID-19 crisis […]

The latest figures show the pace of growth continuing to accelerate as the economy bounces back from its COVID recession in 2020. The US economy grew at its fastest rate since 2003 in the first quarter of the year, according to preliminary figures, as households and businesses lapped up government stimulus. The Commerce Department reported […]

Australia and Britain are heading towards a free trade deal during two days of talks in London. This is despite British trade secretary Liz Truss having to apologise to her Australian counterpart as talks began. Her staff had briefed against Dan Tehan saying he was inexperienced and holding up progress, despite having 20 years experience […]

China’s economic growth slowed at the start of this year as its post-pandemic rebound began to level off, official figures showed. GDP grew by just 0.6% in the first quarter, missing expectations of a 1.5% increase and down from 3.2% in the last three months of 2020. But the figures also showed that the world’s […]

The number of employees at U.S. businesses rose in February by less than expected, underscoring the labor market’s struggle to recover despite a decline in Covid-19 infections in recent weeks. Company payrolls rose by 117,000 during the month, according to ADP Research Institute data released Wednesday. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists […]

The UK pound passed US$1.40 on Friday for the first time in nearly three years. Just after 1.30pm, the pound was up 0.4% on the day but earlier it hit $1.4024 – its highest since 20 April, 2018. The UK’s rapid COVID-19 vaccination programme has sparked hopes that there might be a sharp economic recovery […]

The European Commission says it will start work on allowing police and financial data to continue to flow from the EU to the UK for the next four years. It comes after the commission said the UK’s data protection laws were in line with Europe’s, despite the changes brought about by Brexit. After the UK […]