Worldwide Financial Planning

This year the Bank of England’s stress test for UK banks included a 1.9 per cent fall in global GDP, oil dropping to $20 a barrel, a UK property market crash and turmoil in emerging markets. The test has been deemed tougher than previous years however, BoE governor Mark Carney commented that the potential for a financial crisis has increased due to recent events.

The latest good news about the UK economy is a solid figure for business investment in the third quarter, the most recent one following the Brexit vote.

A lot of attention has been given to the sell-off in government debt markets, although as ever the reality has failed to match up to the hype.

If you ever wanted any more convincing that we now live in the post-truth era then just take a look at what happened in America.

Meanwhile..... The trade deficit has narrowed slightly in the third quarter from almost £13bn to around £12.5bn, however the weaker British pound has not yet contributed to the shrinking deficit.

This week any hopes of finding something different to talk about were cruelly dashed when the high court ruled that the government couldn’t trigger article 50 without first running it by parliament.