There has been a lot of new data released this week on the Euro Area, and all of it has been positive; unemployment continues to fall (slowly), inflation is back up to closer to 0%, and economic confidence is at its highest since 2011.
Chart of the Week: Week 12, 2015: UK Essentials Inflation
For the first time since they started recording the CPI measure of inflation, the rate of price growth has fallen to 0% (for February).
Chart of the Week: Week 11, 2015: UK Central Government Finances
With the annual UK Budget due this afternoon, we’ve updated our yearly chart showing the central government finances per person.
Chart of the Week: Week 10, 2015: Current Budget Deficit
This morning, the Scottish Government released their annual report on their finances covering the period up to 2013/14.
Chart of the Week: Week 9, 2015: UK Interest Rates
Tomorrow’s Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting marks the sixth anniversary of their decision to reduce the Bank Rate to an “emergency” record low of 0.5%.
Chart of the Week: Week 8, 2015: Zero Hour Contracts
The Office for National Statistics published their annual survey of “Zero Hour Contracts” this morning, which suggested that the number of such contracts had grown to 697,000 in 2014, or 2.26% of all employees.