Please see below this week’s Blackfinch Group Monday Market Update received this morning– 23/05/2022.
Blackfinch Group Monday Market Update
Issue 93 | 23rd May, 2022
UK COMMENTARY
Consumer Price inflation hit 9% in the 12-months to April, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was the UK’s highest inflation rate since 1982.
The ONS also reported that the UK’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.7% in the first three months of the year, its lowest level since 1974, as competition for workers pushed up job vacancies to record highs.
NORTH AMERICA COMMENTARY
The US Commerce Department reported a month-on-month rise in retail sales of 0.9% in April, despite inflation reaching a 40-year high.
Labour markets strengthened across the US in April as unemployment rates fell in most states and the District of Columbia. Encouragingly, labour force participation, which measures the percentage of the working age population either employed or looking for work, also increased in most states.
EUROPE COMMENTARY
The European Commission (EC) downgraded its forecasts for European growth in 2022 from 4.0% to 2.7%, citing the supply chain disruption and higher energy commodity costs driven by the war in Ukraine.
With some European countries heavily dependent on Russian energy exports, growth is expected to slow to 2.3% in the European Union (EU) and euro area in 2023.
The fastest-growing EU countries this year are expected to be Portugal at 5.8%, followed by Ireland at 5.4%. The weakest growth is expected from Estonia, with just 1%, followed by Germany and Finland, both with growth of 1.6% respectively.
According to the EC, inflation in the euro area is expected to average 6.1% this year, three times the European Central Bank’s target, having hit record highs of 7.5% in April.
ASIA COMMENTARY
Unemployment in China rose to 6.1%, while property sales saw their biggest fall since August 2006. Sales of new homes plunged 47% in April from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
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Charlotte Clarke
23/05/2022