At the end of the Chinese New Year holiday week, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), made a rare appearance in public, when he gave an interview to Beijing-based media outlet Caixin. The interview, represents Zhou’s…
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Money is still pouring out of China. In January, the Peoples Bank of China (PBC) spent US$100bn of its foreign exchange reserves trying to prop up the Renminbi following December’s outflows of US$108bn. Investors rattled by the economic slowdown are…
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While the American economy may have lost some of its momentum just recently, consumption which accounts for 70% of GDP remains robust. Household confidence remains high and labour markets strong with 151,000 new jobs created in January. However this was…
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Last week the Japanese ¥ became the lightening rod of financial stress that threatened to push the country back into deflation. The currency had grown by 9% against the US$ since the Bank of Japan (BoJ) cut interest rates at…
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The price of equities should be determined by investors trading; instead they are currently driven by announcements from the Fed and the oil price. We are now witnessing the remarkable link between equity prices and oil prices. The correlation between…
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Markets panicked again last week with UK and European stocks falling to their lowest levels since 2012 and 2013 respectively. Japans Nikkei 225 index fell 5% on Monday its worst daily showing in three years as the ¥ jumped to…
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From April 2016 HMRC is introducing a tax free personal savings allowance of £1,000 (£500 for higher rate tax payers) for savings income or interest. This means that most people will no longer pay tax on their savings interest.
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On 6th April 2015 a new marriage allowance came into force. This means that up to 10% of a spouse’s or civil partner’s unused personal allowance can be transferred, effectively reducing their tax bill by up to £212. You can…
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Over the first three weeks of January, we have witnessed a stock market where fear has fed fear. Markets suffered another panic attack at the beginning of last week, with further falls in oil prices being the trigger. Oil slid…
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