博鱼体育集团

Recovering at a rate of knots

Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane expects Britain鈥檚 economy to begin recovering from the second quarter of this year.

Mr Hadlane, who has been the voice of optimism throughout the pandemic, played down the risk of a rise in unemployment after the end of the furlough scheme at the end of April, adding that, providing the economy is within 5%-10% of its pre-pandemic size, there should be no further job losses beyond the roughly one million people who had already lost work.

Indeed ONS data , revealing that productivity increased at the fastest rate in fifteen years during the third quarter of 2020, may offer a glimpse of what to expect as the roll-out of the vaccines progresses.

Who owns ESG?

Back in December I analysed proposals from the US Department of Labor that threatened to spoil the investment industry's ESG party. The proposals sought to force asset managers to consider ESG factors only where they had a clear financial impact.

The industry and I noted that, despite the DoL's best efforts, political momentum in the US, the UK and EU would be likely to see ESG investing criteria become more influential, not less.

A month on and Bloomberg's Matt Levine sees a new battle between public and private sectors as to who controls the ESG investing rule book, see the second section in . Matt tracks the attempts by officials to an 11th hour regulation ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration that forces banks to lend to all companies engaged in legal activity.

The pandemic's mark on housing supply

In a year spent being buffeted by lockdowns, vaccine breakthroughs, the US election result and Brexit trade negotiations, developers in London sold 20,092 homes in 2020, up 1% on a year earlier, writes Anna Ward. That is part of a new report analysing market drivers of the new homes market and the city鈥檚 prospects for economic growth over the next five years.

Pricing is likely to be supported by more limited supply in the aftermath of the pandemic, with the building hiatus during the first lockdown set to impact delivery as firms catch up after construction halts, supply chain disruptions and risks to their labour force.

Molior data shows the number of units that started construction in 2020 fell 9% on year to 17,856. In inner London, new starts dropped 24%, while outer London starts were more stable, dipping just 2% on year.

Water cooler connections

US hedge fund Elliott Management is closing its Hong Kong office and will based in Hong Kong to its offices in London and Tokyo. These aren't big numbers when it comes to headcount, but it comes at an interesting moment as Brexit raises questions as to London's role as a global finance capital.

A new from PWC and the CBI suggests about 7,500 finance jobs have left London for the EU due to Brexit, an outcome that would have seemed far too rosy amid the forecasts of of four years ago.

Meanwhile, on the topic of the role of the office more broadly, the FT has with Brookfield Asset Management chief executive Bruce Flatt. Mr Flatt says speculation as to the demise of the HQ is overstated, adding that 鈥渋n business and life there are always problems and having a personal connection with others helps you work through those situations. That鈥檚 why office spaces are important.鈥�

In other news...

In a new Rural Update, Andrew Shirley tracks the Brexit fallout, Chris Druce has insight and key data from , and Stephen Wong has of property markets across Asia.

Plus, the government the Help to Buy practical completion deadline, 300,000 Covid vaccines per day is an of good news, and finally, Americans are .