21 April 2023 - No end yet to cost of living crisis
This week's release of employment and inflation data has painted a different picture to the optimistic noises emanating from the Government and more recently the Institute of Directors. Following an unexpected rise in jobless numbers, the figures for inflation in March showed that despite the Bank of England having raised interest rates, albeit in modest increments, at every meeting of the MPC since December 2021, at an annual rate in excess of ten percent. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, and his colleagues at the Treasury were disappointed recently by the IMF report which placed the UK at the bottom of the league table for GDP this year in the G20. While the Government likes to speak in terms of potential and future performance the IMF is using a completely different set of models and tends to disregard current output as a measure of future performance. It is different to put a positive spin on a monthly employment report which shows that jobless claims went from a fall of 18.8k to a rise of 28.2k. In fact there was very little official comment on the data at all. Beyond Currency Market Commentary: Aims to provide deep insights into the political and economic events worldwide that can cause currencies to change and how this can affect your FX Exposure.