Please find below, an update on global markets, received from Blackfinch, this morning – 14/03/2022
- UK fuel prices hit record highs as the surge in crude oil prices continued. Unleaded petrol hit £1.61 a litre on Thursday, up from £1.51 per litre at the start of March, while diesel reached £1.70 a litre.
- UK gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated to have increased by 0.8% in January. This was a notable improvement from the 0.2% contraction in December, suggesting the UK economy had shrugged off the negative impacts of the fast-spreading Omicron COVID-19 variant.
- Figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed every sector in the UK grew in January, with services up 0.8%, production up 0.7% and construction up by 1.1%.
- Propelled by surging costs for gas, food and housing, US consumer inflation climbed to an annual rate of 7.9% at the end of February, the sharpest rise since 1982, with even higher price increases to come.
- As various experts highlighted, the reported rise in US inflation came before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked dramatic surges in oil, gas, wheat, metal and other commodity prices.
- In the US, job vacancies remained high in January as firms continued to struggle to hire workers. According to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), there were 11.3m job openings at US firms in January, ahead of the 10.9m forecast.
- The European Central Bank (ECB) announced it would speed up the end of its asset purchase programme – designed to help European economies weather the COVID-19 pandemic – sooner than expected. The announcement sent eurozone bond yields soaring.
- The ECB also raised its inflation projections and cut its economic growth outlook, believing war in Ukraine was likely to keep commodity prices high, holding back the ability of households to spend and businesses to invest.
- Eurozone inflation forecasts for 2022 were revised upwards from 3.2% in December to an average of 5.1%. The forecast for 2023 was also raised from 1.8% to 2.1%.
- Western governments announced plans to impose punitive tariffs on Russian trade to further isolate Moscow from the global economy following the invasion of Ukraine.
- Inflation in Brazil hit a seven-year high as the country’s cost-of-living crisis intensified. Consumer prices increased 10.54% in the year to February, ahead of expectations, with monthly inflation rising to just over 1%.
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David Purcell
14th March 2022