As many of our clients will be aware, one of the great worries as the world recovers from the pandemic is inflation. Late last year the Bank of England suggested that inflation ‘might reach’ 5% in 2022. A week later the figures for November came out showing that inflation had alreadyreached 5.1%. The UK is …
Introduction January’s headlines were dominated not only by reports of lockdown parties in Downing Street, but also by growing tension on Ukraine’s border. Russian President Vladimir Putin massed his tanks on the border, with the Chair of the Commons Defence Committee saying that an invasion was “imminent and inevitable”, and a top Polish official said …
Introduction Despite the pandemic, 2021 was a good year for the majority of stock markets we report on in the Bulletin. We wrote that a year ago and – irrespective of all the ups and downs it brought – 2021 was another good year for world stock markets. All but one of the markets we …
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered his second Budget speech of the year on Wednesday October 27th. It was, he declared at the start of the speech, “a Budget for a new age of optimism”. He sat down an hour later with Conservative backbenchers furiously waving their order papers as he promised “a …
Introduction November was a month when supplies of both oil and gas – or the lack of them – dominated the news. You will read several comments below about the threat of inflation. In many countries, it is reaching levels not seen for two or three decades, and the escalating price of oil and gas …
In September Germany went to the polls to elect a new government – and a successor to Angela Merkel, who had decided not to seek a fifth term as Chancellor. The result was inconclusive. The Social Democrats (SPD) topped the poll with 25.7% of the vote and a provisional 206 seats in the Reichstag, with …
Introduction October was the month which brought us Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s second Budget of the year. Normally that would make the headlines, but October was also a month when the world gave us plenty to worry about. With factors such as rising energy prices and supply chain issues impacting economies worldwide, the UK’s economic outlook …
You will no doubt be aware that September was a month when shortages dominated the headlines. As we will see below, it was by no means a problem confined to the UK: sadly it does not look like a problem that will quickly disappear. We have, for example, written previously about the shortage of semiconductor …
In June China’s ride-hailing app Didi, the country’s equivalent of Uber, floated on the US stock exchange. The company ended its first day with a valuation of $68.5bn (£49.6bn). That is the biggest flotation by a Chinese company in the US since Alibaba, popularly dubbed “the Chinese Amazon” and founded by China’s most high-profile tech …
If you’re the sort of person who likes their glass half-empty then there will be plenty of opportunities to find something to worry about at the moment. The recovery from the pandemic, global tensions and all the staff shortages in the news can turn anyone into a pessimist. On top of that, some are suggesting …
