New U.S. welfare claims rose by a record clip last week, according to Department of Labor figures, which puts the world's largest economy on course for a double-digit unemployment rate and huge falls in GDP up ahead.

April 2,2020

Recession store closures

Economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA) have advised clients they have yet again had to slash their forecasts for the global economy, blaming "the lack of an effective policy response to control the spread of the virus in developed markets and some emerging markets," for the move.

April 2,2020

The labour market is crumbling as coronavirus containment efforts drive a sharp spike in job losses that could have lifted the unemployment rate as much as three percentage points over the last fortnight, to its highest since June 2014. 

April 14,2020

A widely watched and highly influential Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey of the U.S. manufacturing sector offered up fool's gold to investors on Wednesday just ahead of an oil inventories disclosure that appeared to paint a bleak picture of the economic outlook. 

April 1,2020

Coronavirus impact

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA Global Research) have updated their proprietary consumer survey to take advantage of its real time nature and gauge the hit to the UK economy of the unprecedented lockdown, which the Cebr says could result in a 15% slump in quarterly GDP.

April 1,2020

Current account deficit narrows

The UK current account deficit "narrowed substantially" at the end of 2020 reports the Office for National Statistics, falling to £5.6BN in the final three months of 2019.

March 31,2020

 

The UK economy stalled in the final quarter, Office for National Statistics (ONS) data confirmed Tuesday, ensuring a weak handover to a likely testing year with the first quarter alone seen augering a historic slump in GDP. 

March 31,2020

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