Britain’s chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced yesterday that he will hold the long-awaited full Autumn Statement on November 17th instead of October 31st. The new date comes after UK financial markets finally showed signs of calming down from the volatility caused by Kwarteng’s September mini-budget.
Comprehensive figures on earnings published by the Office for National Statistics yesterday showed that the proportion of UK workers on low pay has fallen to its lowest on record. The statistics revealed that 10.5% of jobs were paid at an hourly rate below two-thirds of the median in April.
Tomorrow, eurozone market watchers will be keeping a close eye on Europe’s economy as France, Spain and Germany’s GDP data will all be released. Germany’s economy grew 0.1% in Q2 2022, and was mainly boosted by household and government expenditure. The latest GDP data for Q3 is forecast at -0.4%, pointing to a contraction in Europe’s largest economy, underpinning growing recession fears.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says the Bank is “getting closer” to the end of its monetary tightening cycle. Likewise, top officials at the US Federal Reserve have started talking more openly about moving to smaller interest rate rises. Some US economists are forecasting a “downshift” as early as this December.
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