Pound live: Sterling set to fall further as Boris Johnson takes UK to brink of no-deal Brexit
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The pound is set to fall even further as the likelihood increases of a no-deal Brexit that will be disastrous for the UK economy, according to a poll.
Sterling has already suffered a rout since Boris Johnson became prime minister on 24 July, falling to a two-and-a-half year low against the dollar of $1.2080 last week.
Analysts polled by Reuters predicted further declines to between $1.17 and $1.20 as the 31 October deadline day approaches.
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There was a 15 per cent jump in the number of homes being repossessed in the second quarter of 2019 compared to a year before.
A total of 1,270 homeowners had their property repossessed in the period, according to trade body UK Finance.
Repossessions remain below the levels reached in the aftermath of the financial crash in 2009-14.
Troubling reading in the UN's climate change report released today which says that humans need to urgently change their diets to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming.
That will mean huge changes for the agriculture and food industries.
Vicki Hird from Sustain, a British charity which advocates better food and farming, says: “The IPCC report proposes adopting farming practices that work with nature rather than forcing production with overuse of artificial fertilisers.
"A key step would be to end harmful subsidies of big single crops (such as corn, sugar cane, soy) and fossil fuels.”
Full report here from science correspondent Phoebe Weston:
Donald Trump frequently boasts about the positive effect he is having on the US economy.
But recent revisions to official data mean that the US expansion from late-2017 to mid-2018 was stronger, and that growth was subsequently a lot weaker, than previously thought, say analysts at Capital Economics.
US growth is slowing down not speeding up as had been thought:
Capital Economics forecasts that the US will be the biggest drag on the global growth during April to June this year.
That could be bad news for Trump who is pinning his hopes for a 2020 election victory on a healthy economy.
An interesting (satirical) take on the pound's fall in value over the last couple of weeks:
The FTSE-100 index is up 19.42 at 7218.12.
The pound is broadly flat so far today against both the euro and dollar.
More people still believe the UK was wrong to vote to leave the EU than think it was right to do so, according to YouGov:
Liz Truss, the UK’s international trade secretary, is speaking to the right-wing US think tank the Heritage Foundation today about a trade deal with the US.
The ultra-free-market organisation is committed to cutting environmental regulations and other protections.
Ms Truss met privately with the group last year, documents obtained by Greenpeace’s investigative unit Unearthed revealed this week.
Among the topics discussed were “what we can learn from ‘Reaganomics’ on things like regulation and red tape”.
More bad Brexit news for homeowners?
The UK housing market is stuck in a holding pattern as buyers wait for more clarity on Brexit before committing to a purchase that could prove unwise if Britain crashes out of the EU in October, reports Olesya Dmitracova.
Political and economic uncertainty has driven UK residential transactions at Savills to their lowest level since the financial crisis, the estate agency, one of the nation’s largest, said in its half-year earnings report on Thursday.
A fall in home sales was also revealed in the July survey by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and earlier this week Halifax said sales had dropped during the early months of the summer.
Full report here:
The Independent's business and economics editor on Brexit and the housing market:
Nationwide is returning £6m to more than 320,000 of its customers after the Competition and Markets Authority found that the bank had failed to alert the customers before charging them for unarranged overdrafts.
The CMA introduced an order in February last year stating that bank customers with personal current accounts must receive a text alert before the charges can be levied. The order was aimed at giving customers the opportunity to avoid unexpected fees.
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