UK: Focus on public finance figures - SocGen

Research Team at Societe Generale, suggests that this morning’s main economic data comes in the form of UK public finance figures.

Key Quotes

“We look for a deficit excluding public sector banks of GBP 6bn, a small fall from a year ago and a cumulative fall of just GBP 2.3bn for the first seven months of the fiscal year compared to 2015/2016. This pace of improvement in the trend in public finances is disappointing relative to the resilience of the economy this year and limits the scope for any fiscal largesse going forwards.”

“Yesterday’s sterling jump was attributed to Mrs May’s conciliatory tone to the CBI and politics will continue to drive sterling until the 2017/2018 economic outlook gets less blurry. Fading hopes of fiscal easing won’t help the pound however.”