Why wouldn’t it be?
The United Kingdom’s trade deficit more than doubled to a record £20.3 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019, or 3.7% of GDP. This was the fifth consecutive quarter of deterioration.
The last time the UK’s trade deficit was over 3% of GDP was in Q2 2002.
Continue reading “UK’s trade deficit hit a record in Q1 2019 due to Brexit stockpiling”
The first estimate of Euro area or Eurozone (EA19) and European Union (EU28) trade statistics by Eurostat for 2018 reveals several interesting insights.
The European Commission slashed their GDP growth forecast for the European Union (excluding the United Kingdom) and the Eurozone for 2019 and 2020 citing slowing growth in China and weakening global trade.
The growth forecast for 2019 for the European Union (excluding the United Kingdom) was cut to 1.5% for 2019 (was previously forecast 2%) and for the Eurozone was cut to 1.3% (was previously forecast 1.9%).
Germany, Italy and the Netherlands all saw big downgrades for their growth outlook.
22 out of the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU) currently have national minimum wages. The 6 countries in the EU that do not currently have any minimum wage level set are Denmark, Italy, Cyprus, Austria, Finland and Sweden.
Continue reading “Here are the minimum wage levels across the European Union”
“Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies.” – John F. Kennedy
Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England gave a speech on Guidance, Contingencies and Brexit at the Society of Professional Economists on the 24th May 2018. Essentially, the speech said the Bank was well prepared for any “potential path” of Brexit. What it didn’t mention was the rapidly expanding balance sheet.
Continue reading “The Bank of England Balance sheet has been expanding rather quickly recently”
We have been publishing a number of statistics for the United Kingdom and the European Union over the last few weeks in the run up to a major piece we will be publishing on the real economics of Brexit. This is the final piece before we publish our post on the real economics of Brexit.
How reliant is the United Kingdom on the European Union for trade? The answer to that is around 52% in 2017 (down from 59% in 1998 and 55% in 2008). 48% of UK exports go the European (EU) Union but 55% of UK imports are from the European Union. Exports to the EU have been decreasing but imports have been increasing. 69% of the trade deficit of the United Kingdom can be attributed to trade with the European Union.
Continue reading “The story of UK trade with the European Union for the last two decades”
We will be publishing a number of statistics for the United Kingdom (and the European Union) over the next few days in the run up to a major piece we will be publishing on the real economics of Brexit. In the meanwhile, here are trade statistics for trade by each product for the United Kingdom for 2017 (the latest full year of data available) sourced from the Office for National Statistics.
We will be publishing a number of statistics for the United Kingdom (and the European Union) over the next few days in the run up to a major piece we will be publishing on the real economics of Brexit.
Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are countries on the road to join the European Union.
