The school holidays officially started in the UK this morning, finally, though you could be excused for failing to notice it.
British government borrowing hit a new record of £130bn in Q2, the height of the lockdown, to pay for the furlough scheme and other coronavirus-related expenditure, taking it to a total of £1.98 trillion. However it had already started reducing between May and June.
There are no major data releases today, so attention will return to trade talks, in particular with the EU and USA. Reports today suggest that there will no progress on a US-UK trade deal this year, while hopes remain for a breakthrough with the EU in the autumn.
On Friday we have retail sales for June as well as GfK consumer confidence for July, which will give a good indication of whether the public is willing to return to any kind of normality. It comes on the day that the wearing of face masks becomes compulsory in British shops.
