Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Alvin Tan of RBC Capital Markets expects the UK economy posted robust growth in May:
May GDP may have suffered a minor setback as the proportion of pupils absent for Covid-19 reasons began to rise again that month. However, private sector activity continued to rebound in May, helped by the reopening of hospitality venues for indoor service.
According to CHAPS card spending data, spending on social activities had reached 85% of its pre-crisis level by the end of the month compared to 75% at the end of April.
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling rage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.
We’re about to find out how the UK economy fared in May, as the first estimate of GDP for the month is released.
With the May unlocking proceeding as expected and with services PMI hitting a 24 year high the latest monthly GDP for May is expected to see another 1.5% jump in monthly GDP, as the UK economy continues to accelerate out of the traps, pushing the 3M/3M rate up to 3.9%, from 1.5%, with services expected to lead the recovery, with a 1.6% expansion.
Related: 17 May reopening: how Covid measures across Britain are changing
Related: Delta variant fears send shares down sharply in London and Europe
First, there are genuine risks posed by the COVID-19 Delta variant, and other potential variants, to the global economic outlook, with the inability of some countries to successfully vaccinate and manage the virus meaning the pandemic may be around for the foreseeable future.
Second, what are highly efficient modern markets may have already, in fast-fashion, discounted all of the expansion, peak and now contraction in this business cycle.
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