This week, the news has been dominated by the ongoing fallout from the tax and energy rises that have hit now we’re in a new financial year.
Starting from April 1st, National Insurance contributions were raised to their highest ever levels, domestic energy bill increases of 50%+ started to be implemented and a range of other cost increases including Council Tax rises went into effect.
Combined with a trickling of news that casts the wife of the Chancellor as in effect a tax dodger, we’ve seen a week of real negativity directed towards HM Treasury.
This has played out interestingly in the currency markets. Against the Euro, the Pound has charted a relatively stable course, ending the week up from where it began. As discussed before, this is partially due to the War in Ukraine and the Euro being more exposed to the repercussions of that horrific situation.
Against the Dollar though, we’ve seen a different picture, the Pound in the last hour or so briefly broke below the 1.30 mark for the first time in a very long time. Speculations are now that it could drop permanently below this mark pretty soon. Once again this is largely based on the UK’s proximity and exposure to the Ukrainian War in comparison to the US.
To close the week with something a bit more light-hearted, in Scunthorpe, a bottle has washed up on the beach containing a message from over 50 years ago written by two teenage girls who were looking for boyfriends. What makes it more fun is that they were reunited with their message and thankfully both found to be happily married!
