The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast strong and broad-based growth for 2018 in its’ biannual World Economic Outlook report. However, beyond the near-term optimism, the IMF has expressed the need to use growth to reduce government debt. Since the financial crisis global debt has surged to 225 percent of world GDP in 2016. Government…
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Finance
Trump’s tariffs hit steel production
On 1 March, US President Donald Trump announced that he will impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to protect domestic producers. This decision follows the U.S. Commerce Department’s report last month which concluded that imports of both aluminium and steel are a national security threat. The US, by imposing trade restrictions, would potentially violate…
Finance
Controversy over BBC gender pay gap
A PwC report found “no evidence” of systematic gender bias in the pay of the BBC’s 824 on-air presenters, but offered several key recommendations to reduce the size of the 6.8 percent gender pay gap including fixing “anomalies” in decision making processes. “The BBC’s lack of consistency and transparency has fed these perceptions [of discriminatory…
Finance
Housing stock rises to £7.14tn
UK housing wealth exceeds £7 trillion for the first time. Increasing in value by over a third in a decade, the value of all UK housing now stands at £7.14tn. The combination of historically low-interest rates and an array of demand-side policy from the government including help-to-buy, buy-to-rent and right-to-buy contributed to the majority of…
Finance
Collapse of Carillion
Institutional investors, auditors, government officials and Carillion executives all have big questions to answer following the construction giants collapse on Monday 15 January. Carillion was the second largest construction and outsourcing company in the UK where nearly half its 43,000 worldwide employees were based. At its formation Carillion was valued at £2bn, now it faces…
Finance
Aviva’s step forward for gender equality
In a landmark step towards gender equality in the workplace, insurance firm Aviva has become the first UK firm of its kind to offer 6-months parental leave to all their staff regardless of regardless of gender, sexual orientation or how they became a parent (birth, adoption or surrogacy). Mark Wilson, Aviva plc’s CEO said: “I…