Economy is almost certainly in recession and the picture ahead is murky
Let’s start with what we do know.
The economy is now almost certainly in recession. It will not be pleasant. This is a recession which will be felt in most households’ pockets – both through the rise in energy prices and shop prices and the rise in the cost of borrowing.
And when it comes to the cost of borrowing, things are certainly getting tougher. Today the Bank of England raised its official interest rates by 0.75 percentage points, meaning if you’re on a floating rate loan tied to Bank rate the increase will be immediately reflected in your monthly repayments.
In a sense, the Bank is merely doing what most people had expected and what markets had already priced in: in other words, the current fixed rate loans out there on the market already assumed something like this happening.
Remember that point: we’ll come back to it.
So we know the economy is in recession. We know prices are very high and times are looking tough – especially if you have a mortgage which needs to be re-fixed soon. But here’s where the certainty ends and the murkiness begins.
Normally the Bank of England produces one main forecast in its Monetary Policy Report – the quarterly document in which it gives its sense of the state of the economy. But this time around it did something unusual: it produced two, and gave quite a lot of prominence to both of them.
A money market rollercoaster
Why? Well, it comes back to the fact that money markets have been on a rollercoaster recently. As you’ll recall if you’ve followed the ride, in the wake of the mini-budget, expectations for where the Bank’s interest rate was going next year leapt up to over 6%. Since Liz Truss‘s exit, those expected rates have begun to fall, to the extent that as of this week they were expecting a peak of 4.75%. That’s a big change.
And these numbers matter enormously: the higher the rates, the more households who will struggle to make their repayments and the tougher life will get for businesses, many of which will struggle to operate. So even a change of a few fractions of a percentage point will make a big difference.
Eight successive quarters of contraction
That brings us back to the Bank’s latest forecasts. It has to base those forecasts for the state of the economy off an assumption of what’s happening to those interest rates. So it typically takes a two week “snapshot” of what money markets expect for borrowing rates and then builds a forecast around it.
Normally that’s a pretty uncontroversial exercise, but not this time. Because as we all know, those rates were all over the place following the mini-budget and the ensuing gilt market meltdown.
The upshot is that the Bank’s central forecast – the one we usually look at – is particularly bad.
It involves eight successive quarters of contraction: that would be the single longest recession since comparable records began in the early 20th century – though it would be much less deep than nearly all of those downturns. It would see the economy shrink by nearly 3% and unemployment get up to 6.5%.
But here’s the thing: that forecast is based on market expectations that Bank rate would get up to 5.25% next year. And the Bank is unusually explicit today that it thinks that is very unlikely. So that recession forecast is a little bit of a chimera: it is based on a scenario which will probably not happen.
So here’s where that other forecast comes in.
The Bank produced a separate set of figures which ignore all that market mayhem and just imagine rates stay where they are, as of this afternoon, at 3% in perpetuity.
On the basis of that forecast, there is still a recession, but it is barely more than half the depth of its central forecast and doesn’t last half as long. Unemployment doesn’t peak as high. Household income isn’t quite as badly hit. It’s tough, but not awful.
More rate rises
So: is that forecast a more reliable picture of the impending months? Well, not necessarily, for two reasons.
First, the Bank said explicitly today that it thinks it will have to raise interest rates again, albeit not as high as markets were expecting a few weeks ago.
What that means is anyone’s guess, but the signal is that they might not even have to rise as high as the 4.75% markets are currently pricing in. But that does mean a slightly worse outlook.
Second, the Bank’s forecast doesn’t make any assumptions about what the government’s Autumn Statement is going to do to the economy. And given everyone expects the government to cut spending and/or raise taxes, it’s a fair assumption that that could also bear down on economic activity.
It’s complicated
So, as you can see: it’s complicated. I know that’s not especially helpful if you’re after a quick summary. But it’s a fairer reflection of where we are.
The UK is in recession, but it’s worth being a little wary of the more lurid headlines out there about how it’s the “longest in history”. The Bank is saying that’s a possibility if rates went higher (and it doesn’t currently think they will).
But there is another interesting thing going on here, which comes back to that point I made at the start – that when the Bank moves its rates it is, in a sense, reflecting what people out there in the market are expecting it to do. Those expectations matter – and the Bank can often influence them itself.
Today’s Monetary Policy Report contains some pretty heavy hints that the market has overshot its expectations about where Bank rate will go in the future. In other words, the report itself could plausibly persuade investors to notch down their expectations for where interest rates are heading next year.
If that happened, we would be left with an interesting paradox: that even as it raises interest rates even more than it has ever done since it became independent in 1997, the Bank could actually push down what markets expect that eventual peak to be.
In other words, this interest rate increase could be reducing the real-life cost of borrowing in the mortgage markets. Fixed rate loans could get cheaper as a result of today’s events, not more expensive.
Perhaps that sounds topsy-turvy, but then it’s no more weird than many of the other turns of this rollercoaster in recent weeks.
The price of resale tickets could be capped under plans to stop the public being “fleeced” by professional touts, the government has announced.
The limit could range from the cost of the original ticket to a 30% uplift, with a consultation to be launched on the specifics of the measure.
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Restricting the number of tickets resellers can list to the maximum they are allowed to purchase on the primary market is another option being considered.
The proposed changes come after concert sales for artists including Taylor Swift were marred by professional touts reselling at heavily inflated prices.
Others have been caught out by a lack of transparency over the system of dynamic pricing, which left Oasis fans watching the cost of some standard tickets more than double from £148 to £355 as they waited in the queue.
Ministers have already promised a dynamic pricing review, with the latest measures aimed at stopping touts “hoarding tickets and reselling at heavily inflated prices”, the culture department said.
There has long been concerns about rip-off ticket resales for events, with high-profile artists like Ed Sheeran pushing for more regulation.
According to analysis by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), typical mark-ups on tickets sold second hand are more than 50%, while investigations by Trading Standards have uncovered evidence of seats going for up to six times their original price.
Ed Sheeran has campaigned for a crackdown on touts. Pic: Reuters
Last year, Virgin Media O2 estimated that ticket touts cost music fans an extra £145 million per year.
The proposals announced today will apply to music concerts, as well as live sport and other events, delivering on a Labour manifesto commitment to make the system fairer.
DJ Fatboy Slim said it was “great to see money being put back into fans pockets instead of resellers” and he is “fully behind” the proposals.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, the chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said the proposals “would go some way to help address the perverse incentives that are punishing music fans”.
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However she urged ministers to go further and launch a fan-led review of music, to look at how the industry could better support struggling small venues and fledgling artists.
Other proposals under the ticket tout crackdown include new obligations so that resale platforms are legally responsible for the accuracy of what is advertised by third parties on their sites.
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‘Dynamic pricing’: What can be done?
Professional sellers often advertise false information about their identity or key details of the ticket, especially for events where the organiser has imposed restrictions on re-sales, a report by the CMA in 2021 found.
The watchdog has also raised concern about “speculative selling” – when touts advertise seats they haven’t yet bought, cash in on the proceeds upfront and hope to secure a ticket later to fulfil the order.
The government also wants to bring in stronger fines and a new licensing regime for re-sale platforms to increase enforcement of protections for consumers.
Trading Standards can already issue fines of up to £5,000 for ticketing rule breaches and the consultation will look into whether this cap should be increased.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “The chance to see your favourite musicians or sports team live is something all of us enjoy and everyone deserves a fair shot at getting tickets – but for too long fans have had to endure the misery of touts hoovering up tickets for resale at vastly inflated prices.
“As part of our Plan for Change, we are taking action to strengthen consumer protections, stop fans getting ripped off and ensure money spent on tickets goes back into our incredible live events sector, instead of into the pockets of greedy touts.”
The chancellor is under pressure because financial market moves have pushed up the cost of government borrowing, putting Rachel Reeves’ economic plans in peril.
So what’s going on, and should we be worried?
What is a bond?
UK Treasury bonds, known as gilts because they used to literally have gold edges, are the mechanism by which the state borrows money from investors.
They pay a fixed annual return, known as a coupon, to the lender over a fixed period – five, 10 and 30 years are common durations – and are traded on international markets, which means their value changes even as the return remains fixed.
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That means their true interest rate is measured by the ‘yield’, which is calculated by dividing the annual return by the current price. So when bond prices fall, the yield – the effective interest rate – goes up.
And for the last three months, markets have been selling off UK bonds, pushing borrowing costs higher. This week the yield on 30-year gilts reached its highest level since 1998 at 5.37%, and 10-year gilts briefly hit a level last seen after the financial crisis, sparking jitters in markets and in Westminster.
Why are investors selling UK bonds?
Bond markets are influenced by many factors but the primary domestic pressure is the prospect of persistent inflation, with interest rates staying high for longer as a consequence.
Higher inflation reduces the purchasing power of the coupon, and higher interest rates make the bond less competitive because investors can now buy bonds paying a higher rate. Both of which apply in the UK.
Inflation remains higher than the Bank of England‘s 2% target and many large companies are warning of further price rises as tax and wage rises bite in the spring.
As a result, the Bank is now expected to cut rates only twice this year, as opposed to the four reductions priced in by markets as recently as November.
Nor is there much optimism that the economic growth promised by the chancellor will save the day in the short term, with business groups warning investment will be tempered by taxes.
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Sky News’ Ed Conway on the impact of increased long-term borrowing costs as they hit their highest level in the UK since 1998
Is the UK alone?
No. Bond markets are international and in recent months the primary influence has been rising borrowing costs in the US, triggered by Donald Trump’s re-election and the assumption that tariffs and other policies will be inflationary.
The UK is not immune from those forces, and other European nations including Germany and France, facing their own political gyrations, have seen costs rise too. (The US influence could yet increase if strong labour market figures on Friday reinforce the sense that rates will remain high).
But there are specific domestic factors, particularly the prospect of stagflation. The UK is also more reliant on overseas investors than other G7 nations, which means the markets really matter.
Why does it matter to Reeves?
The cost of borrowing affects not just the issuance of new debt but the price of maintaining existing loans, and it matters because these higher costs could erode the “headroom” Ms Reeves left herself in her budget.
Headroom is a measure of how much slack she has against her self-imposed fiscal rule, itself intended to reassure markets that the UK is a stable location for investment, to fund day-to-day spending entirely from tax revenue by 2029-30.
At the budget, she had just £9.9bn of headroom and some analysts estimate market pressure has eroded all but £1bn of that.
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At the end of March the Office for Budget Responsibility will provide an update on the fiscal position and market conditions could change before then, but if they don’t then Ms Reeves may have to rewrite her plans.
The Treasury this week described the fiscal rules as “non-negotiable”, which leaves a choice between raising taxes or, more likely, cutting costs to make the numbers add up.
Why does it matter to the rest of us?
Persistently higher rates could push up consumer debt costs, increasing the burden of mortgages and other loans. Beyond that, the state of the economy matters to all of us.
The underlying challenges – persistent inflation, stagnant growth, worse productivity, ailing public services – are fundamental, and Labour has promised to address them.
Investment in infrastructure and new industries, spurred by planning and financial market reform, are all promised as medium-term solutions to the structural challenges. But politics, like financial markets, is a short-term business, and Ms Reeves could do with some relief, starting with helpful inflation and growth figures due next week.
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