Welcome to taking stock on.... Monday 4th September 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 catalyst will help the market recover?
MOST READ RNS
Angle PLC - ANGLE launch of Portrait Flex assay
EQTEC PLC - Bank Refinance of Italy Market Development Centre
AFC Energy Plc - Exclusive Distribution Agreement with TAMGO
RISERS
Wildcat Petroleum - Wildcat Petroleum opens office in South Sudan
Ergomed plc - Recommended Cash Offer
Physiomics PLC - Senior Management Update
FALLERS
600 Group - Update re AGM and Annual Report & Board Change
Adv Medical Solutns - Trading Statement
RNS WORTH READING
CleanTech Lithium - Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) Pilot Plant Update
TOP BUSINESS STORIES
Expect inflation blip but our plan is working, says Jeremy Hunt
Chancellor blames expected rise on fuel price increases but maintains inflation will halve by end of 2023
The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has said the UK may experience a “blip” increase in inflation this month, as data suggested that average fuel prices have jumped back above £1.50 a litre.
Hunt said the government is on track to hit its target of halving inflation by the end of the year but suggested the rate of price rises could spike when the latest figures for August are published in September.
Hundreds more UK school buildings could be crumbling, says minister
Hundreds more school buildings in England might be crumbling and unsafe, Britain's education minister said on Monday, after authorities ordered 104 schools to shut buildings with old and weak concrete.
The revelations of crumbling school buildings just days before the start of a new term has sparked anger among parents and teachers, and represent a new political headache for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of an election expected next year.
The UK economy made a stronger recovery during Covid at the end of 2021 than previously estimated, according to sharply revised official figures.
Data has now revealed that the economy was 0.6% bigger in the final three months of 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels.
The previous figures said that the UK economy was 1.2% smaller.
The government said it showed "those determined to talk down the British economy have been proved wrong".
The revised figures also show the pandemic lockdown collapse in the economy was smaller than thought in 2020, with output declining by 10.4% rather than 11%.
The recovery in 2021 was also faster with growth of 8.7% rather than 7.6%.
Recently, the ONS estimated that between April and June this year, the UK economy was still 0.2% smaller than the final three months of 2019 - the last full quarter before Covid struck the following March.
This meant the UK was at the bottom of the biggest G7 economies in terms of its recovery from the pandemic.
However, the upward revision could now mean that the UK economy is performing much better than Germany and is only just behind France and Italy when the ONS releases its latest figures.
UK house prices fall by most since 2009, Nationwide says
British house prices in August were 5.3% lower than a year earlier, their biggest annual decline since July 2009 as higher interest rates reduced demand from buyers, mortgage lender Nationwide said on Friday.
Prices dropped by 0.8% in August alone, the largest monthly fall since March, after a 0.3% decline in July, Nationwide's figures showed.