Premier League broadcasting: What does Amazon’s initial success with Prime Video mean for the market? March 3, 2020 Amazon broadcast its first live football matches in December, showing 20 Premier League games to subscribers on its Prime Video platform. The decision to make a first foray into the sector was a brave, albeit relatively small, one for the US retail giant. Now that the dust has settled, it looks increasingly like an intelligent [...]
China and Hong Kong’s private sectors hit record low amid coronavirus March 4, 2020 China’s services sector suffered its worst month on record in February as efforts to contain coronavirus tanked the world’s second-biggest economy, survey data showed overnight. Separate data showed that Hong Kong’s entire private sector suffered its worst contraction on record in February, as China’s economic woes spread over the border. The Chinese Caixin/Markit services purchasing [...]
Insolvency firm Begbies Traynor’s boss says retail carnage expected to continue December 10, 2019 The executive chairman of restructuring and insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor said today that there was no sign of the carnage on the High Street ending as the growth in e-retailing and shaky consumer confidence continued to take their toll. “Headwinds in terms of consumer demand with uncertainty over what the future will hold and structural [...]
UK PMI: Manufacturing malaise sinks economy to 41-month low December 16, 2019 Private sector activity in the UK slumped again in December, dragged down by the fastest drop in manufacturing output since July 2012. Overall UK output dropped to 48.5 in December from 49.3 the previous month, hitting a 41-month low, according to the UK’s flash composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI), compiled by IHS Markit. Read more: [...]
What now as monetary policy runs its course? November 12, 2019 The UK looks set to reverse the course of austerity with all parties planning to ramp-up spending as the reality of a huge Brexit upheaval puts the pressure on both the treasury and Bank of England. However, despite the recovery seen in the post-2008 world, we have seen little upside in terms of interest rates [...]
Coronavirus: SMEs will need more than a slow-moving loan scheme to recover April 17, 2020 Britain was once disparagingly described as a nation of shopkeepers and now, over two centuries later, small, and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the British economy. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, SMEs account for the vast majority of the UK business population; three fifths of employment and around half of the UK’s [...]
Cyber success is vital to the UK’s future January 30, 2020 From the Bletchley Park codebreakers to Tim Berners-Lee and the invention of the World Wide Web, the UK has a rich heritage of computing technologies. We see this pedigree coming through in our cyber businesses. Take Darktrace, the UK’s first cyber firm valued at over £1bn, which is changing the way businesses protect critical data [...]
Casinos blast new lockdown measures as ‘sickening’ July 31, 2020 Britain’s casinos have slammed the Prime Minister’s decision to U-turn on plans to ease lockdown restrictions tomorrow as “sickening”, warning that business hangs in the balance with venues forced to shut over the critical summer months. In a press conference today, Boris Johnson said plans to reopen venues tomorrow will be pushed back until at [...]
Brexit-week: Why Brexit isn’t the only reason for the pound’s uncertainty January 31, 2020 It’s been an up and down week for the pound and for once, despite being Brexit-week, the UK’s departure from the EU wasn’t the primary cause. The provisional manufacturing PMI came in close to the breakeven point at 49.8, more than two points higher on the month. The services PMI was up three points at [...]
Growing European Coronavirus fears April 3, 2020 Sterling and the Euro – a story of two halves. The pound had another resilient week, strengthening by an average of 1.9% against the other major currencies. This is despite the downgrade of Britain’s credit rating by Fitch. The pound’s strength can be attributed to the US Federal Reserve announcing billions of liquidity to stabilise [...]