Taking Stock on Monday 16th October 2023
Taking Stock: Is a look at today's top business news & investment views plus we cover the winners, losers, the most read company news & the most followed. Today this includes:
What's been your biggest loser? What lessons did you learn from it?
TOP BUSINESS STORIES
UK inflation expected to fall to 6.5% in September
Headline inflation eased again in September, official figures are expected to show this week, while pay growth is slowing.
Economists polled by Refinitiv expect the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to say annual inflation fell slightly to 6.5% in September from 6.7% in August. However, that is still well above the Bank of England’s 2% target.
A steeper fall in prices growth was likely until oil prices jumped, with the cost of a barrel of Brent crude up $10 over the month to a peak of $97 at the end of September. It has since fallen back to $90.
The UK will avoid a recession despite the impact of the Bank of England’s interest rate hikes, new forecasts from the EY Item Club say.
In its new Autumn forecast, the EY Item Club predicted the UK economy would grow 0.6 per cent over the course of 2023, up from 0.4 per cent growth projected in July.
The economy has been far more resilient to the Bank’s interest rate hikes than many experts predicted thanks to a remarkably strong labour market and the fairly rapid fall in energy prices.
Businesses investment has been significantly stronger than expected and EY expects investment growth across the year to hit 5.9 per cent. Excluding the post-pandemic bounce, this is the fastest rate of growth since 2016.
Asking prices of UK homes show smallest October rise since 2008
Asking prices for homes in Britain have risen at their slowest pace for the time of year since 2008, property website Rightmove said on Monday in a latest sign of how the climb in borrowing costs has slowed the housing market.
Average asking prices for homes increased by 0.5% between Sept. 10 and Oct. 7 from the previous four weeks, well below the average increase for the period of 1.4%, Rightmove said.
Prices were down 0.8% compared with a year earlier and the number of agreed sales was down 17% in annual terms.