SO MUCH news, so many events today in the UK Economy. Here is a rundown of them with links to BBC news stories.
Some good news today - UK unemployment fell slightly to 3.5%. However, the main reason for this seems to be due to a continuing trend of people leaving the workforce and joining the economically inactive due to long term illness such as Long Covid. Meanwhile, vacancies are still high (bad for firms looking for workers) and wage rises are well below inflation on average (bad for workers!).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63204333
The Bank of England took further action in UK bond markets today. They do not tend to give warnings irresponsibly, so their statement today that there is "a material risk to financial stability" is a worying piece of possible understatement. However, this seems to have been contradicted later by the BofE then saying that they will not extend their action beyond the previously set deadline of Friday. This worried people too!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63211743
At the same time, Kwasi Kwarteng (the Chancellor) was receiving a serious grilling in the Houses of Parliament from other politicians. He defended his plans, saying he was "all about growth" and that the IMF agreed that his actions would lead to more of it. This does not seem to tell the whole story of what the IMF said today. A more accurate version is that the IMF did say that the Truss government plans would bring some short-term growth to the UK, but that the measures also endangered even more inflation by cancelling out the effects of interest rate rises by the Bank of England.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63206733
Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
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