08:15
The impact of Brexit on the UK economy is worse than Covid – that’s the verdict of the chair of Britain’s fiscal watchdog.
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) chair said they thought the UK’s departure from the EU would lower the country’s GDP by about 4%.
But Richard Hughes also said: “We think that the effect of the pandemic will reduce that (GDP) output by a further 2%,” in comments made to the BBC.
“In the long term it is the case that Brexit has a bigger impact than the pandemic,” Hughes told the broadcaster.
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Updated
07:55
Introduction: Rishi Sunak’s budget ‘will lead to flat recovery’; Shell profits sink
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.
Many of the UK’s economists and analysts will be bleary-eyed this morning, after a night spent crunching the numbers from the chancellor’s budget yesterday.
The Resolution Foundation think tank is, as ever, one of the first out of the blocks with its overnight analysis of the government’s economic plans.
Their view: “The chancellor set the stage for a new high tax economy – rather than the high wage economy pledged by the Prime Minister, or the low tax one favoured by many Conservative MPs”.
However, the think tank is warning that the combination of upcoming tax rises, combined with rising inflation and growth could actually result in a “flat recovery for household living standards”.
The chancellor was given a slightly better-than-anticipated outlook for the public finances yesterday, but the outlook is less positive for people’s personal financial situation. With inflation on the up, household incomes are forecast to stagnate.
We’ll be taking a look at all the reaction to Wednesday’s budget and spending review during the day.
Meanwhile, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has just reported a 25% slump in third quarter profits compared with the prior three months, taking them to $4.1bn. The firm’s earnings came in below analysts’ expectations.
The company has also set itself some new emissions targets, pledging to cut absolute emissions from its operations and electricity it uses by half by 2030, when compared with 2016.
Shell has already set the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
The agenda:
- 08.45 Germany unemployment rate
- 12.45 ECB interest rate announcement
- 13.30 ECB press conference
- 13.30 US Q3 GDP figures
- 13.30 US weekly unemployment claims
- 21.30 Quarterly results from US firms including Amazon, Comcast, and Starbucks