Despite the gloom that currently surrounds the UK’s economic outlook, the pound sterling has performed strongly, up around 23 per cent (as at July 14 2023) versus the US dollar since September 2022, and 5 per cent relative to the euro. Economic textbooks theorise that the principal determinant of the relative strength of one currency to…
In the previous article we started talking about planning your pension to ensure you have enough money to sustain your lifestyle throughout your retirement. Here are a couple more things to consider when organising your finances today. Consider other sources of income. It’s worth considering whether you have other sources of income that could let…
Your pension plan is there to help you fund your life in retirement. But how can you make your pension savings last for as long as you need them to when the cost of living has gone up so much? We have some tips that could help you prolong your retirement income while costs are…
If you’re approaching retirement, you’re probably thinking about how you’d like to access your pension savings. There will be lots of options available to you – but, as many households struggle with the cost of living crisis, the benefit of having a guaranteed, regular income may be increasingly difficult to ignore. Is now the perfect…
We ended last week with a slate of hawkish comments from central bankers – a reminder that they aren’t done tightening interest rates just yet and that market expectations for rate cuts later this year are probably much too soon, given the inflation outlook. From the ECB, Isabel Schnabel and Francois Villeroy de Galhau both…
China’s Central Economic Work Conference took place last week and this is one of the most important events of the year in terms of giving the public an indication of future plans. Beijing promised to “forcefully revive market confidence” in contrast to last year’s “revive the confidence of market entities” – so a little more…
The main event for markets this week is a busy diary for central bank policy decisions with the Federal Reserve, the ECB and the Bank of England all expected to raise interest rates. The ongoing rally in US equities ran into some headwinds on data pointing to continued high inflation and a still-tight job market,…
The key news story for markets on Friday was the US Non-farm Payrolls for November, which came in at 263k jobs added, well ahead of consensus at 200k. There was also an upward revision to the October reading from 261k to 284k. The unemployment rate nevertheless held firm at 3.7% and wage growth was also…