Coronavirus live news: Pfizer vaccine works on Brazil variant; US airlines ask Biden to back Covid travel guidelines





01:50

Greece mourns youngest Covid victim, 37-day baby





01:36

Tunisia set to receive first coronavirus jabs





01:10

China’s Sinovac jab effective against Brazil variant, preliminary study suggests





00:52

Post-Covid consumer spending boom ‘implausible’, says Treasury official

The prospects for a consumer spending boom after lockdown have been downplayed by a senior Treasury official, amid warnings that wealthier families have saved more than low-paid workers during the pandemic.

Charlie Bean, a former Bank of England deputy governor who sits on the government’s budget responsibility committee, said it would take several years for households to spend £180bn in extra savings accumulated mainly by retirees and higher-paid workers during the crisis.

Casting doubt over forecasts for rapid growth in spending once Covid rules have been relaxed, he told MPs on the Commons Treasury committee: “The idea that people will make up for lost consumption by spending it all over the next few quarters once the economy has reopened, I find implausible. It is much more likely it’ll be spread out over several years.”

Ministers are hoping such a surge could kickstart Britain’s economic recovery once lockdown restrictions have been removed this summer. Andy Haldane, the Bank’s chief economist, argued in a Daily Mail article last month that the economy could benefit from “enormous amounts of pent-up financial energy waiting to be released, like a coiled spring” as shop, pubs and restaurants reopen.





00:26

US airlines ask Biden to back Covid travel guidelines





00:08

Pfizer vaccine effective against Brazil variant





23:49

Summary

source: theguardian.com