2020

Budget 2020: The right prescription for now?

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Today’s Budget announcement was part of a stimulus ‘double-bill’. The Bank of England unveiled a massive impetus this morning, with a 50-basis point cut in the interest rate and more importantly a package of targeted measures to guarantee credit flow to businesses given the looming threat of Coronavirus.

This afternoon’s instalment in the form of Rishi Sunak’s debut Budget complemented this by acting to ease cash flow concerns for households and businesses. In addition, the public spending taps have been turned on to support public services and to enable investment in infrastructure – in relation to everything from climate change to transport and housing. One thing that was missing however was any meaningful increase in taxes. Normal Budgets are generally a careful balancing act of revenue-raising and spending commitments, but not today, which was a rather one-sided affair in that it was overwhelming focused on spending.

Where is all of this money coming from if not from tax rises? The answer is borrowing. The UK is set to borrow £300billion over the next five years.

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Chief Economist’s Weekly Brief – Here’s hoping

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A Happy New Year to our readers! Economic data over the last weeks of 2019 suggests the UK economy rounded off the decade struggling for momentum. But with some Brexit uncertainty sidelined, although certainly not all, and a government ready to loosen the fiscal spigots, there’s hope that 2020 will see a gradual improvement in the economy’s fortunes. But as events in the Middle East have shown, it’s already looking bumpy. Just like 2019, then!
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At sixes and sevens?… (UK and NI new car sales fall to six and seven-year lows respectively)

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Last year was a record year for both the UK and Northern Ireland labour markets. Employment has never been higher and unemployment (for Northern Ireland) has never been lower. Given these labour market conditions one would assume that consumer confidence must be strong too?  Not so. Previously having a job, or not having one, was a key determinant of whether a household or individual was in poverty. Over the last decade, however, a sustained period of below inflation wage growth and cuts to working-age welfare benefits has squeezed disposable incomes for those in work too.

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Big Economic Review of the Year 2019

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Each December, we try to bring together some of the greatest minds in business and economics to review the year just past.

Unfortunately they’re never available. However, whilst you’re stuck with me, Richard Ramsey, we have been able to enlist the fantastic Stephen Kelly, Chief Executive of Manufacturing NI, and the incomparable Richard Johnston of Ulster University’s Economic Policy Centre to consider the good, the bad and the ugly of the NI, UK and global economies in 2019 and to speculate about who might be the economic villains of 2020.

We got together in Ulster Bank headquarters in Belfast earlier this week and covered a lot of ground… Have a listen and hopefully you find it useful and interesting.

Watch the podcast:

On-the-go? Prefer to listen to the review on SoundCloud?

Bye for now and have a great Christmas and New Year!