Day: February 1, 2018

    UK inflation has peaked and is now on a downward trajectory, market commentators have said, as today's figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropped from a five-year high of 3.1% in November to 3% in December. The slight decline, the first drop since June 2017, was in line with expectations and partly a result of a weaker increase in air fares compared to the same month in 2016. In addition, higher import costs because of the collapse in the value of the pound, which has been largely responsible for driving living costs up in 2017, has fallen out of the figures. Sterling has been steadily climbing since the start of the year and was today trading at $1.38, the highest level since the Brexit vote. CPI remains abov...

    Nearly two years after Britons voted in favor of the U.K. leaving the European Union, some are calling for a second Brexit referendum. This time, however, the question isn’t whether the U.K. should leave the bloc, but how. Concern over what kind of final deal the U.K. will get out of its negotiations with the EU has fueled the recent interest in a second referendum. A survey published last week by the Guardian and British pollster ICM found that 47 percent of British voters surveyed support having a say on the terms of a final Brexit deal. When one omits the respondents who said they were undecided, support jumps to 58 percent. And the support comes from voters on both sides of the Brexit debate: The poll estimates that one quarter of “leave” voters also favor havin...

    Theresa May has sparked a new clash with Brussels by saying that EU citizens who arrive during the post-Brexit transition period must not have the same rights as those who came before. The prime minister’s remarks set her on course for a major skirmish with officials in Brussels, who have offered a status quo transition period until December 2020, including free movement and citizens’ rights for those who settle in the UK during that period. Rules for new EU migrants could include mandatory work permits, requirements to register on arrival and restrictions on access to benefits, which would not apply to EU citizens who moved to the UK before Brexit. Speaking to reporters on a three-day trip to China, May said the details were a matter for negotiation for the impl...