The continued rebound of UK retail sales has offered hope for a V-shaped economic recovery, but economists are increasingly questioning whether it is sustainable as reasons for Britons to refrain from spending multiply.
Retail sales volumes increased by 0.8% compared to the previous month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, thanks in part to DIY shopping sprees. That growth was down from the 3.7% increase over July or the surges of 12.1% and 13.9% seen in May and June.
News just in this afternoon of more restrictions on parts of England will not help matters. A 10pm nightlife curfew will hit the hospitality industry hard. Property adviser Altus Group says the North East curfew measures will impact 2,350 pubs and restaurants, and another 1,508 in Lancashire.
Trump to ban WeChat and TikTok from US app stores on Sunday
Icons for the smartphone apps TikTok and WeChat are seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP
The White House’s battle against Chinese tech companies could escalate over the weekend, after the US announced that WeChat and TikTok will be banned from app stores on Sunday.
The US commerce department said the ban was intended “to safeguard the national security of the United States”.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has demonstrated the means and motives to use these apps to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and the economy of the US. Today’s announced prohibitions, when combined, protect users in the US by eliminating access to these applications and significantly reducing their functionality.
Apple and Google would not be able to allow the app on their US stores, which account for the vast majority of mobile phones globally.
Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said:
Today’s actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party.
Any ban could be removed before it takes effect, and users of the app currently are not likely to see any immediate changes on their phones.
The Royal Mint will stop making £2 coins. Photograph: Alamy
Got any 2ps or £2s in your pocket? You aren’t alone.
The Royal Mint will not produce any new £2 or 2p coins for at least a decade, as its stocks remain high because of the slump in use of cash, a trend that has accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.
The rapid decline in demand for coins has left the Mint, which has been producing coins in Britain for more than 1,000 years, with a mountain of excess stock.
The FTSE 100 is still in the doldrums, down by 0.4% at about 6,028 points, but it looks like US stocks are on course to gain ground when they open shortly.
Futures suggest the tech-focused Nasdaq will gain 0.5%, while the main benchmark, the S&P 500, will rise by 0.2%. The Dow Jones industrial average, which is more sensitive to single-stock movements, is roughly flat.
The EU has signed a deal with drug companies Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline to provide as many as 300m doses of a possible coronavirus vaccine.
Member states also have the ability to donate reserved doses to lower- and middle-income countries, an option if other vaccines such as one being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca are successful.
The European commission, the EU’s executive body, has already signed a contract with AstraZeneca and is discussing similar agreements with Johnson & Johnson, CureVac, Moderna and BioNTech.
European commission president Ursula von der Leyen said:
With today’s contract with Sanofi-GSK, the European commission shows once again its commitment to ensuring equitable access to safe, effective and affordable vaccines not only for its citizens but also for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.
Agreements with other companies will be concluded soon and build a diversified portfolio of promising vaccines, based on various types of technologies, increasing our chances to find an effective remedy against the virus.”
Tom Watson on the ‘Good Morning Britain’ TV show in January. Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock
Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, who accepted an advisory role with the owner of Paddy Power this week, previously described the company’s actions as “dirty” and “money-grabbing” after it took bets on the murder trial of former athlete Oscar Pistorius.
In an exchange with a company representative on BBC Radio 5 Live, Watson also said the company was “not remotely interested in anything other than making money”.
The emergence of the comments could prove awkward for the former shadow culture minister as he prepares to join his new colleagues at Flutter Entertainment, the owner of Paddy Power, on a salary described as “less than six figures”.
An employee inspects medicinal marijuana buds at Tweed INC., in Smith Falls, Ontario, Canada. Photograph: Lars Hagberg/AFP/Getty Images
Foreign-based cannabis firms could potentially be allowed to float on the London Stock Exchange - provided they produce medicinal cannabis or cannabis oil, and the financial watchdog is satisfied they aren’t breaking UK law.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Friday said it would have to be satisfied that the proceeds a company makes do not fall foul of the UK’s 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act, while meeting other requirements for a listing.
The FCA has issued new guidance following queries from overseas-licensed cannabis firms who are eyeing a London listing - especially those based in Canada, where medicinal cannabis has been legal since 2001 and recreational use is also permitted. Many companies are sizing up ways of expanding their businesses.
UK-based medicinal cannabis companies considering an IPO would need to prove to the watchdog that they had relevant Home Office licences.
The FCA noted that it would weed out listings for any recreational cannabis company, wherever they are based, given that possession and supply of cannabis remain a criminal offence in the UK.
The watchdog intends to issue fuller guidance in due course.
Focus on pubs and clubs for possible new lockdown restrictions unfair - industry
The possible imposition of new restrictions on hospitality venues across England would unfairly hit night clubs, pubs and bars, according to the head of a trade association representing venues.
The BBC reported that new England-wide measures are under consideration that could see hospitality businesses shut to slow a surge of coronavirus cases.
“Circuit break” measures being discussed reportedly include asking some hospitality businesses to close, or limiting the opening hours of some pubs and restaurants nationwide.
Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, said:
We have been monitoring discussions over further restrictions across the UK, in particular around the night time economy. While we in no way endorse any compromise on public health we have to consider the evidence presented which seems to be unfairly focused on the businesses within the wider hospitality sector.
There is clear evidence both within the UK and internationally that transmission beds are within households. This is supported by discussions with Public Health England and in particular, statistical evidence from countries like Switzerland, where 27.1% of infection is in households, 1.9% in nightclubs, and 1.6 % in bars.
The return of schools, universities and other industries coupled with increased testing will all be factors in rising cases, so we must ask why the narrative from government is focused around hospitality as the cause for these increases.
Shares in airlines, hotel groups and pub companies have tumbled, after it emerged that the government is weighing up tough new “circuit break” restrictions to avert a second wave of Covid-19 infections.
International Airlines Group, which owns British Airways, was the biggest loser on the FTSE 100, down by more than 10% by the early afternoon, while the aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce was not far behind, down 5%, and easyJet fell nearly 8%.
Ireland’s Ryanair will cut a further one in five of its flights scheduled in October, blaming Irish and EU governments for what it called “excessive and defective” travel restrictions.
Nigerian former foreign and finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attends a press conference on July 15, 2020, in Geneva, following her hearing before World Trade Organization 164 member states’ representatives, as part of the application process to head the WTO as director general. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has narrowed down the candidate list for the global body’s director general, with three women and former UK minister Liam Fox among the shortlisted candidates.
Five candidates have survived from the eight original nominees. They are Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria, Yoo Myung-hee of the Republic of Korea, Amina C. Mohamed of Kenya, Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Liam Fox of the United Kingdom.
This means that Jesús Seade Kuri of Mexico, Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh of Egypt and Tudor Ulianovschi of Moldova have been knocked out.
A second round of the selection process will run until 6 October, when the five candidates will be whittled down to two. The full exlanation can be found on the WTO website.
The arts and entertainment sector had the most workers on furlough. Some 45% of arts, entertainment and recreation workers were furloughed at the end of July, with accommodation and food services next at 43%.
Some 2.26m women were furloughed at the end of July compared with 2.15m men.
London had the highest take-up rate of 17% of workers furloughed against the UK average of 16%.
The number of furloughed workers in the UK has fallen from its May peak. Photograph: HM Revenue and Customs
In a press release (that did not mention the 4.8m workers still absent from work) chancellor Rishi Sunak said the figures showed the furlough scheme was a “success”.
He was focusing on the number of workers in the retail industry on furlough, which halved from the start of the pandemic from 1.85m to 789,000.
Sunak said:
These figures show the success of our furlough scheme - making sure people’s jobs are there for them to return to.
That so many businesses have been able to get back to trading, and bring their staff back to the workplace is a testament to the impact the scheme has had.
As many as 5.3m UK workers still furloughed at end of July - Treasury
The latest figures from the UK Treasury show that as many as 5.3m workers remained on furlough at the end of July, although nearly a million returned to part-time work as the government started to wind down the scheme.
The scheme, introduced to save jobs during the government-imposed lockdown, paid 80% of furloughed workers’ wages up to £2,500 per month. The number of workers furloughed under the coronavirus job retention scheme peaked at 8.9m on 8 May but fell to 4.8m by 31 July.
The Treasury’s statisticians warned that it estimates this figure could be in the region of 10% higher, or around 5.3m once all returns are received and revisions made.
950,000 workers – 20% of those furloughed nationally – went back to offices, shops, restaurants and factories to work on a part-time basis during July.
It is not just Ryanair that is taking a bit of a battering from the increase in restrictions across Europe: British Airways owner International Airlines Group has now lost 10%.
International Airlines Group shares dropped steeply on Friday. Photograph: Refinitiv
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index is flat, but travel and leisure stocks shed the most among sectors with a 2.4% fall, Reuters reports.
The FTSE 100 has fallen by 0.36% so far this morning, with a mixed picture across European stocks.
One reason for the stock market selloff in the UK may be the growing prospect of new coronavirus restrictions across the country. Health secretary Matt Hancock was this morning asked if he was considering a new national lockdown. He said:
I have learned over the last nine months not ever to rule anything out. However, it is not the proposal that’s on the table.
This is a big moment for the country. We are seeing an acceleration in the number of cases. And we are also seeing that the number of people hospitalised with coronavirus is doubling every eight days. We are now starting to see the effects in hospital.
Something that could be on the table, however, is restrictions on pubs and restaurants, which reportedly could be asked to shut or shorten opening hours, according to the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg.
That would be a huge blow to the hospitality industry, which is already suffering from social distancing requirements and reduced footfall - while the last government furlough support will end next month.
You can follow all of the UK political developments on the UK live blog here:
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion