UK Holiday Bookings Rise Britain’s largest airline, IAG, saw it’s share price rise 10.73% on Monday (20th September) following the government announcement that the US will be easing its COVID travel restrictions to passengers from the UK and EU. All UK and EU travellers will need to evidence their double vaccinations alongside further proof of a negative COVID test taken within three days of the flights. PM Johnson announced his delight ...

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Stockholm houses up 21.6% Stockholm apartments up 11.7% Stockholm city centre 104,000 kr/m² London average house cost: £500,000 London private property up 3.7% Vacancies on Objetkvision up by 10% 44% in Stockholm wish to reduce their m² per worker Commercial vacancies up by one percentage point in the UK Vacancies double what they were before Covid-19, higher than Q4 2009 Private Property During the past year there has been a significant ...

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UK Tax Increases Last week PM Johnson outlined a new 1.25% health and social care tax to help contribute towards reforms in the named sectors. The policy is anticipated to raise an extra £12bn per year for the Government and has a specific focus upon reducing the backlog of NHS appointments pent up during the pandemic. An obstacle faced by the PM was that raising taxes went against one of his ...

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Supply Chain Delays Freight delays are hampering the global economic recovery and the UK has the additional hurdle of Brexit changes to mitigate. The logistical challenges faced are further exasperated by the rise in demand which has widened the gap between output and orders to a 24-year high. Iconic Swedish brand IKEA revealed supply struggles on around 1,000 product lines to UK customers with blame placed on Brexit and the shortage ...

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The British-Swedish Chamber of Commerce is delighted to share that Mikaela Kumlin Granit arrived this week in London in her new role, having been appointed in April, as the Ambassador of Sweden to the United Kingdom. This comes as Torbjörn Sohlström steps down from the role following five successful years in the position and will now return to Stockholm to work with the Swedish Foreign Ministry. Mikaela Kumlin Granit grew up ...

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Afghanistan: Withdrawal This week, the US announced that they had now withdrawn from Afghanistan following a 20-year long alliance with Britain in the region. The successful evacuation of over 15,000 people to the UK, since the 14th of August, under the time constraints is considered an achievement for the Ministry of Defence; however, there remains between 100-150 British citizens who were unable to get to their flights alongside 800-1,100 eligible Afghans ...

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Handelsbanken, a BSCC Patron member, has analysed the UK’s performance in Q2 of 2021 with their UK Chief Economist, James Sproule, identifying the strong 87.8% increase in the ‘accommodation and food service’ sector. This was partially attributed to the success of England in Euro 2020 but also mainly due to the re-opening of indoor hospitality with COVID restrictions. Sproule additionally went on to state that the accommodation sector will receive ...

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UK Stock Shortages Some analysts have now started to point to a slower recovery in the UK economy due to a variety of causations. The HIS/CIPS Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) hit a sixth month low for August (scoring 55.3)- scoring below the Eurozone average and USA. The group attributed this to the “worst shortages of staff and materials on record” which are holding back the recovery. Manufacturers, for instance, are ...

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UK Q2 Forecast The first quarterly estimate for UK GDP growth in Q2 has been released and suggests a rise of 4.8% following the easing of COVID restrictions. Interestingly, the largest contributors to growth were the wholesale/retail trade, accommodation and food service activities, and education.  Each month in Q2 is expected to have achieved moderate growth and real GDP growth will likely be the strongest in the G7- followed by Italy ...

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