As the festive season approaches, the business news continues to be dominated by reverberations from the Budget. There has been a stream of grim warnings about job cuts and closures from prominent business leaders in the sectors, which will be most seriously affected. UKHospitality predicts a £3bn annual hit from next April, while the British Retail Consortium is forecasting an
Does the new government necessarily herald a new economic era? There has certainly been a change of tone, even if it seems rather more difficult to detect an actual change of mood as yet.
Thursday, July 4, 2024, was not just another Independence Day for the US; it marked the end of one political era and the beginning of what was promised throughout the election campaign to be a very different one. We are still in the very early honeymoon phase of the new regime, but already, the intended shape of future economic policy
More mixed news on the economy amid the chaos of the election campaign As during any election campaign, it’s usually best to avoid all media interpretation of economic statistics amid the swirl of reckless hyperbole and the plethora of highly questionable ‘facts’ being peddled by all political parties in their frantic efforts to win over voters. The savage rebuke issued
Economic signals are still mixed but positive overall With the release of many more positive economic announcements in recent weeks, has the UK economy finally turned a corner as the government and the Bank of England are suggesting, or are we all getting ahead of ourselves? Only time can answer this question, but many, although not all of the signs
For the overwhelming majority of retailers, the festive season is make or break. Christmas and New Year 2024 may have delivered surprisingly buoyant top-line revenues, given the consumer cost-of-living crisis, but profitability was another matter. The result has been another crop of high-profile failures, including Ted Baker, Matchesfashion, the Body Shop and FarFetch. Retailers account for 9% of all UK
