Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as MPC member Gertjan Vlieghe says UK may need more stimulus to fight Covid-19 crisis
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- Wall Street fell last night as optimism faded
- Reckitt Benckiser: strong demand for cleaning and health products…
In the US, the number of new building permits jumped 5% in September, as the market recovered from its spring lockdown.
The Commerce Departments reports that the number of new privately-owned housing units authorized jumped to an annual rate of 1,553,000m up from August’s 1,476,000. That’s also 8.1% above the September 2019 rate of 1,437,000.
Sept #housing starts +1.9% at 1.415 mln vs 1.457 mln est #economy #markets #stocks #trading pic.twitter.com/sYSiAGPuZM
September 2020 seasonally adjusted U.S. total #housing_starts were 1,415K (annualized). #Census pic.twitter.com/zNHEHkSZ96
Housing Starts at 1.415 Million Annual Rate in September https://t.co/FJbB4R3j6l Below expectations, and previous months revised down – due to weakness in multi-family pic.twitter.com/m5ZOZNHJCy
Some early reaction to Gertjan Vlieghe’s speech:
#Vlieghe looks set to vote for more asset purchases at #BankofEngland #MPC meeting on 4 November (decision announced on 5 Nov) & odds look in favour of more stimulus then. #BOE still reviewing case for & practicalities of negative interest rates https://t.co/8prwp8rkOG
Another K-shaped recovery chart by Gertjan Vlieghe from Bank of England pic.twitter.com/pxfrTUk8JE
Really interesting and thoughtful speech here from the @bankofengland external MPC member Gertjan Vlieghe. Sets out very clearly why it is wrong to fixate on the short-term tradeoff between social distancing restrictions and economic outcomes. https://t.co/jM79uyBOF0
The deterioration in the outlook suggests a strong case for more policy. The problem is that QE is not likely to be particularly effective right now and @bankofengland is not ready to deploy negative rates. Raises the question of what next for the BoE?