Economics

Malta will benefit more than any other financial centre in Europe from Brexit, according to an international asset management group. As Paris and Frankfurt battle over “Brefugees” more companies could actually choose to move to Malta's shores because it offers significantly fewer drawbacks than its European Union counterparts. Jeremy Leach, Chief Executive Officer at MPG, said: “Malta will be the biggest beneficiary following Brexit. After London, it should be the first choice for a financial firm to establish a branch or secondary office...

The day after Theresa May announced that she would trigger Article 50, on 29th March, inflation has leapt up. Due to increasing fuel and food costs inflation is now at the highest rate since Sept 2013. Economists had expected CPI inflation of 2.1% for February, so the extra increase is cause for concern across the nation. There are fears that inflation will continue to rise as the UK prepares to cut itself off from the other EU member states. The...

The Office for National Statistics reveals 440% increase in number of people on zero-hours contracts since 2010. People across the UK are living in totally unstable situations, where they don't know if they will be able to pay the rent at the end of the month. No guarantee of paid work is living people on a knife edge. GMB union today commented on new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing the number of people on zero hours...

The dead money economy is worth an eye-watering £721 billion, new research has found, with a staggering amount of cash laying dormant and unused in pensions, bank accounts and ISAs. With levels of consumer spending expected to be slashed in the coming months as the reality of the falling pound hits home, the UK could be caught between a rock and a hard place with many well-off people sitting on cash they have no intention of using. Close to a...

The UK construction industry could lose almost 200,000 EU workers post-Brexit should Britain lose access to the single market, putting some of the country’s biggest infrastructure and construction projects under threat, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has revealed. RICS has cautioned that for Brexit to succeed, it is essential to secure continued access to the EU Single Market or to put alternative plans in place to safeguard the future of the property and construction sectors in the UK....

This is just what you didn’t want to hear, especially if you have been slapped with a National Insurance tax rise, as a self-employed worker. The IFS has made a post-budget statement and it makes grim reading for the nation. The impact of Brexit is unknown, but the future already looks gloomy. Well over a decade of austerity will be too much for a lot the UK’s population to take. In 2020 it will be 15 years without an effective...

Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Budget Statement failed to relieve the strain on workers from a further squeeze on living standards as wage growth is on course fall, GMB trade union warned today. Responding to the Chancellor’s Budget statement, the union said he neglected to support workers facing a decade of pay and had failed to provide proper funding for public services or social care. Hammond also raised National Insurance for the self-employed, turning his back on a manifesto pledge to not...

Public sector workers have been slapped with a decade long “pay pinch” and now inflation caused by Brexit has worsened the pay problems for midwives, teaching assistants and refuse collectors amongst others. The GMB union claims the public sector is now suffering from the worst salary squeeze since the Thatcher government The government cap on wages means that full-time workers, in the public sector, now actually face a real terms reduction in income. On average this will be a huge...

Over the last month supermarket inflation has doubled, meaning customers are having to fork out more cash to buy staples such are butter and milk. This news means that pressure on household’s spare income will be reduced even more and Brexit is partly to blame. Some will see this has another indication that the economy is starting to struggle since the decision to leave the EU, and possibly some Leave voters might be feeling Bregret. The inflation growth indicates that...