London Report: Unemployment figures set to show recovery
UNEMPLOYMENT figures this week are expected to show that the number of people out of work has dropped again, as the UK recovery takes hold.
Jobs data is likely to show an unemployment rate of 6.5 per cent in the three months to May, down from 6.9 per cent in the quarter to February.
Despite the figure being well below the seven per cent rate earlier cited by the Bank of England as a cue for a rate hike, economists say the dip in the rate is unlikely to hurry the Bank of England into an increase.
Howard Archer, of IHS Global Insight said the Bank “modified its forward guidance policy in February to focus on the amount of slack it considers to be in the economy based on a broad range of indicators.
“While an unemployment rate of 6.5 per cent will likely fuel expectations that the Bank of England will start to raise interest rates before the end of 2014, it is only one factor that the Bank of England will take into consideration.
Tomorrow is a busy day for economics news, with the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor, UK monthly inflation figures, ONS House Price Index, and UK producer prices all due for release.
June inflation is likely to remain at 1.5 per cent, economists predict.
Also tomorrow, Bank of England governor Mark Carney, deputy governor Andrew Bailey and other policymakers will be questioned by the Treasury Select Committee over the recent steps taken by the Bank to try to stop risky mortgage lending.
On Friday the Bank of England Trends in Lending report and CML mortgage lending figures are due out.
The corporate calendar starts today with news from Aveva Group and SThree.
Tomorrow Bwin.party digital, Carr’s Milling Industries, Dairy Crest, ITE and Michael Page International are all due to report results.
Wednesday’s figures come from British Land, BTG, Evraz, Fenner, Fresnillo, Hochschild Mining, ICAP, London Stock Exchange Group, Rio Tinto, Severn Trent and Workspace Group.
On Thursday Anglo American, Anglo Platinum, Breedon Aggregates, Computacenter, Euromoney Institutional Investor, Hilton Food Group, Land Securities, London Mining, McKay Securities, Mothercare, Sports Direct International and SSE will update the market. On Friday Record will give a trading update.