By Greg Smith on Monday, May 9th, 2022
in Blog, Market Insights
GBP – BoE hike to 1%, but dovish on further moves The big news last week was the Bank of England raising rates again. The BoE felt they had to respond to inflationary pressures despite prospects of softer economic growth. This was the fourth consecutive hike by 25bp to a 13-year high of 1%. The […]
By Greg Smith on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022
in Blog, Market Insights
GBP – Bank of England to hike to 1% The Bank of England meeting will be eagerly watched this week. A fourth consecutive rate hike is widely expected by the markets. The BoE’s message will likely be that they need to strike a balance between inflation and growth risks. We expect a further 25bps increase […]
By Greg Smith on Monday, April 25th, 2022
in Blog, Market Insights
GBP – Consumer confidence and sterling fall Last week, we saw another fall in consumer confidence which fell to -38 in the GfK survey. The last time we saw such a low level was at the time of the global financial crisis. This also fed into retail sales which fell more than expected in March. […]
By Greg Smith on Tuesday, April 19th, 2022
in Blog, Market Insights
GBP – Inflation rise continues, wages following Last week, we saw a further sharp rise in inflation to 7% in March. Both headline and core inflation were higher than expected, with the potential for headline inflation to get close to 9% in April. Meanwhile, unemployment fell to 3.8% with wage growth accelerating, which suggests a […]
By Greg Smith on Monday, April 11th, 2022
in Blog, Market Insights
GBP – GDP, Employment and inflation data due On the back of a strong start to the year, we expect a 0.2% increase in GDP for February. The first-quarter growth overall looks likely to be stronger than expected partly because of less impact from Omicron. The outlook could weaken further if the war in Ukraine […]
By Vatsal Trivedi on Monday, April 4th, 2022
in Blog, Market Insights
GBP – BoE speakers to highlight policy trade-off The Bank of England committee members have sounded more cautious about the policy outlook after raising interest rates for the last three meetings. Inflation may reach 8% in April and potentially go even higher. More interest rate increases are therefore likely, including at the next policy meeting […]
By Vatsal Trivedi on Monday, March 28th, 2022
in Blog, Market Insights
GBP – Inflation above 6%, BoE concerned about growth This week, the markets will be watching for updates on growth and inflationary pressures. The second reading for fourth quarter GDP will include new detail on the consumer sector. Last week saw a fall in February retail sales and a further slip in consumer confidence. Even […]
By Greg Smith on Monday, March 21st, 2022
in Blog, Market Insights
GBP – Bank of England hike, Spring statement watched As expected the Bank of England delivered a rate hike of 0.25% to 0.75%. One of the nine MPC members voted to leave rates unchanged. On a more dovish note, the language softened to “some further modest tightening in monetary policy ‘may be’ appropriate”. Inflation is […]
By Greg Smith on Monday, March 14th, 2022
in Blog, Market Insights
GBP – Bank of England expected to raise rates again Developments in Ukraine will be high on the agenda of the Bank of England’s meeting this week. The Monetary Policy Committee has raised rates at the last two meetings in response to inflation moving higher. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, commodity prices have risen sharply […]
By Greg Smith on Monday, March 7th, 2022
in Blog, Market Insights
GBP – Crisis in Ukraine deepens, affecting markets further The tragic situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate. Financial markets remain volatile, with significant increases in energy prices. There will clearly be an economic impact globally. Equity markets have fallen sharply across the world. There have been sharp rises in other commodities including industrial metals and […]
