It’s been a while since the last update due to the long Easter Bank Holiday.
In the last two weeks we’ve not seen much good news on the economic front.
Around the world inflation has continued to rise, the cost of living has increased and the war in Ukraine has continued to rage on.
In the UK we saw a 0.7% rise in prices now taking inflation to 7%!
We also saw figures suggesting that this year the UK would have the slowest growth out of the G7.
The Pound/Dollar has continued pushing the 41.30 barrier and at the time of writing has broken it once again. Experts expect it to permanently drop below $1.30 very soon. Against the Euro, the rate has remained relatively stable.
Further afield, the Japanese Yen has been having a pretty bad time. We saw this week it drop to a 20 year low against the dollar.
Europe is on tenterhooks this weekend due to Sunday’s Presidential election in France. Polls show Macron ahead by as many as 10 points, however there are fears in various markets of what a Le Pen win could mean. A Macron win would keep the markets stable, a Le Pen win would see an economic shockwave akin to Brexit take place.
In some pleasant news to round off the week, David Attenborough was recently named ‘Champion of Earth’ by the UN.