So just how will April 2018 be
remembered?
Weak UK Growth
The UK economy grew at its slowest
rate since 2012 in the first quarter of the year, the Office for National
Statistics (ONS) has said. GDP growth was 0.1%, down from 0.4% in the previous
quarter, driven by a sharp fall in construction output and a sluggish
manufacturing sector.
Why?
Is it Brexit? Beast From The East?
Post Christmas Blues?
I guess it depends on what your
political message is as to which excuse you spin as the reason. However, in
reality it is probably a cocktail of all of the above.
Brexit uncertainty is having the
biggest impact and drag on the economy, as the International Monetary Fund has
made clear. The UK was top of the global growth league of our main industrial
competitors before the referendum. We are now
languishing somewhere near the bottom.
Interesting
At a time when we have seen only one rate rise in the past decade,
there has been a growing swell of opinion that interest rates are destined to
rise. The latest minutes from the Monetary Policy Committee appear to show that
the Bank of England has left the door open to raise UK interest rates in May as
2 of the 9 members of the committee backed an increase in April.
That is all well and good but an economy has to be able to sustain
any interest rate rise and the 0.1% quarterly economic performance is the worst
since 2012 and inflation at 2.5% is lower than expected. It’s hardly the
perfect storm for an interest rate rise.
Regardless of the decision to increase or not, I’m pretty sure the
media will make us believe it is the worst decision ever.
Darling Sterling
It appears that the pound is the darling of the currency world
right now as it has stopped trading on Brexit developments for the time being
and is moving more on its fundamentals.
Gone are the days of noisy Brexit headlines stirring sharp
knee-jerk moves in the currency world.
The pound has been close to trading at its highest level since the
Brexit vote.
Several factors have played a role in this recent resurgence,
ranging from increased market confidence that the UK and EU can strike a Brexit
deal, to falling confidence in the agenda of US President Donald Trump.
With Brexit negotiations being turned up to ‘11’ next month, we
need some substance to the political flirting from an economic perspective.
Breath isn’t being held though.
Computer Says “No”
A media frenzy was caused by an IT
balls up of an Amber Rudd scale by TSB.
It all started so innocently with
TSB migrating to a new banking platform and transferring five million customers
and their 1.3 billion records from the platform of previous owner Lloyds to new
servers of their own.
What could possibly go wrong?
As soon as the new system was switched
on, customers reported seeing other people's account details and being unable
to view, access and use their own account. All in all, a 2 week mess for
account holders and a PR disaster for TSB.
Sex Issues?
In a bid to get to the bottom of
pay inequality, firms with more than 250 staff (around 10,000 companies) had to
file a report confirming the average difference between male and female
employees.
The average pay gap among all
companies was 9.7%. 78% pay men more than women, 14% pay women more and 8% said
they had no gender pay gap.
One of the biggest / worst
offenders was Ryanair, which reported a 71.8% gender pay gap. Hearing the
repetitive muck coming from the owner’s mouth in the media all too often, I
can’t say I’m surprised. I’m not surprised either that the Banking Sector was
the worst offending sector. Who’d have thought it!
Meanwhile, High Street brands KFC,
Matalan, Starbucks, Costa, McDonald's and Primark reported no difference in
what they paid their female and male staff. Good on you.
Let’s see what call to action we
get from Westminster……surely this can’t be right and proper in 2018?
April’s Biggest
Loser……Option 1 - Facebook Losing Face
On the basis that you are not a
female working for Ryanair who has a TSB bank account……could the biggest loser
this month be Facebook?
Cambridge Analytica has been at the
centre of a row over whether it used the personal data of millions of Facebook
users to sway the outcome of the US 2016 presidential election and the UK
Brexit referendum. In short, 'political manipulation' was at play.
Within a week, Facebook had $58bn
wiped off its valuation. That’s more than the market valuations of Ford, eBay
and Delta Airlines. Ouch!
This story will run and run thanks
to the political tones……a perfect storm for the media.
April’s Biggest
Loser……Option 2 - Conservatives Losing Face
On the basis that you are not a
female working for Ryanair who has a TSB bank account and you are a significant
holder of Facebook shares……perhaps the biggest loser this month are the
Conservatives?
Cambridge Analytica it appears, has
close links to the Conservative Party.
- The parent company of Cambridge
Analytica (SCL Group) has been run by a chairman of Oxford Conservative Association.
- It's founding chairman was a
former Conservative MP.
- A Cambridge Analytica director
appears to have donated over £700,000 to the Conservative party.
- A former Conservative party
treasurer is a shareholder.
- Government departments have had
three contracts with the SCL Group recently.
Pick the bones out of that lot!
Gobsmacking and terrifying in equal measures!
April’s Biggest
Loser……Option 3 – Rudderless Home Secretary
Amber Rudd resigned as Home Secretary
as she had "inadvertently misled" MPs over targets for removing
illegal immigrants. April’s biggest loser?
The story goes…….Ms Rudd told MPs
that the Home Office did not have targets for removing illegal immigrants.
Unfortunately (well, for her) the Guardian published a letter in which Ms Rudd
set out her "ambitious but deliverable" aim to deport 10% more
illegal immigrants over the "next few years" to Theresa May.
Err......that’s targets then.
Well, I declare. That is quite some
mismatch between what she told MPs and the evidence which then emerged.
And Finally……
President Trump is to visit the UK
in the summer. Oh the joy……can we pretend we are not in?
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