The Bank of England surprised us this month by holding interest rates at 5.25 per cent, bringing to an end a run of 14 consecutive interest rate hikes. So what does this mean for you and your money? Can we cautiously hope that interest rates have peaked? The Bank of England started hiking rates in …
Introduction Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt was brought in as a safe pair of hands by Liz Truss amid the fallout from last year’s Mini Budget. Of course, Ms Truss herself did not survive much longer, and after being kept in post by Rishi Sunak, Mr Hunt delivered his Autumn Statement, in which he …
Introduction “A week is a long time in politics,” as Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously said. What, then, is two months? Or to be more exact, 55 days? On 6th September, Liz Truss, having defeated Rishi Sunak in the ballot of Conservative members, became Prime Minister. She duly appointed Kwasi Kwarteng – a man …
According to a recent report in City AM, there were 1.8m job vacancies advertised in the UK in the week to May 1st, up roughly 15% on the same period a month earlier. The report stated that recruiters were ‘in overdrive’ as they struggled to fill the vacancies, with Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the …
This month’s 54 per cent rise in the energy price cap has put the cost of living firmly at the top of the news and the political agenda. Following the increase, a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity can expect to pay nearly £2,000 a year for their energy, and this could …
In the middle of March, Russia was due to make an interest payment of $117m (£89m) on two bonds denominated in dollars. There was some dispute over the payment: Russia said it had made the payment, the investors holding the bonds said they hadn’t received the money. The papers generally reported that if Russia didn’t …
According to the latest Forbes Rich List, the richest person in the world is Jeff Bezos, founder and, until recently, CEO of Amazon. Forbes estimates Jeff Bezos’ wealth at $177bn (£133bn), which puts him ahead of those other well-known billionaires, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. These days it is easy to keep score …
We don’t want to sit behind screens anymore. According to a recent BBC article, ever-increasing numbers of us have reassessed our work and our lives post pandemic, and we want to work outside. Quoted in the article David Rochefort, a former IT worker, said the pandemic made him want to do something ‘astronomically different.’ “My …
The financial burden on the average consumer seems to be increasing daily. Food prices are rising, energy bills are on the up and National Insurance is about to increase. At the same time, businesses are struggling with issues such as rising transport costs and labour shortages, which have been linked to both Brexit and the …
There cannot be anyone reading this article who hasn’t heard of COP26, the conference on climate change and global warming which took place in Glasgow in the first two weeks of November. (If you didn’t know, COP stands for Conference of the Parties – those countries which signed the original UN Convention on Climate Change …
