During the first week of March, stock markets continued their recovery despite Chinese macro-economic data releases failing to impress and European updates being only marginally better than expected. The drivers were oil prices rising back to $39pb and robust economic…
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We are less than 2 months away from the new rules on Lifetime Allowance and Annual Allowance for pension savers coming into force. As a reminder the Lifetime Allowance is the maximum pension fund that clients are able to hold…
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We are fast approaching the end of the tax year and with a Budget and two bank holidays thrown in during March now a good time to think about any unused allowances for both your pensions and ISAs. There are…
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There has been wide industry comment that a ‘flat rate’ of pension tax relief may be announced by the Chancellor in the Budget on 16th March this year. Currently the rebate people receive is based on their income tax rate,…
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At the end of the Chinese New Year holiday week, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), made a rare appearance in public, when he gave an interview to Beijing-based media outlet Caixin. The interview, represents Zhou’s…
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Money is still pouring out of China. In January, the Peoples Bank of China (PBC) spent US$100bn of its foreign exchange reserves trying to prop up the Renminbi following December’s outflows of US$108bn. Investors rattled by the economic slowdown are…
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While the American economy may have lost some of its momentum just recently, consumption which accounts for 70% of GDP remains robust. Household confidence remains high and labour markets strong with 151,000 new jobs created in January. However this was…
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Last week the Japanese ¥ became the lightening rod of financial stress that threatened to push the country back into deflation. The currency had grown by 9% against the US$ since the Bank of Japan (BoJ) cut interest rates at…
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The price of equities should be determined by investors trading; instead they are currently driven by announcements from the Fed and the oil price. We are now witnessing the remarkable link between equity prices and oil prices. The correlation between…
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