Vaccine Roll-out and Lockdown End Date On the 11th of January the UK’s Health Secretary, Hancock, stated that the country was “on track” to vaccinate 15m people by the 15th of February. On Sunday this target was beaten after 10 weeks since vaccinations first began with PM Johnson declaring this “a significant milestone in the United Kingdom’s national vaccination programme”. The figure represents around 19% of the national population and is ...

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UK-EU Exports In 2019, the UK exported £294bn (43% of all exports) to the EU and imported an even larger £374bn (52% of all imports) back from the EU. This represents a £79bn trade deficit with the bloc but does feature a surplus of £18bn in services. However, the UK had a trade surplus of £49bn to non-EU countries with a strong £83bn surplus for the services sector which is set ...

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During what has been a challenging year, one of our BSCC Patrons, Handelsbanken have achieved steady year-on-year growth with operating profits of SEK 20,135m. This came alongside the positive news that individual customer satisfaction was now at 81% for 2020 too. The company have said they are now looking to work on “enhancing our relationship banking service through our digital capabilities, placing expertise and support even closer to our branches”. The ...

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Europe’s competitive league table for the largest PR advisory firms was released last week and revealed that the Brunswick Group, a BSCC Patron member, had now risen to first place by value of deals to a total of $237,106m worth. This represents a 52.6% growth YoY and was one of Europe’s fastest growing businesses in the industry. The group signed 128 deals over the year, again the highest in the ...

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UK COVID Updates Across the UK there have now been over 3.8 million COVID cases and deaths are now well beyond 100,000. The 100 year old national hero from the pandemic, Captain Sir Tom Moore, has also now been admitted to hospital and even PM Johnson has personally called him to wish a speedy recovery. However, the new COVID case rate continues to plummet and the UK is now at it’s ...

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Baker McKenzie, a BSCC Patron, has been appointed to the inaugural panel of the UK Government to provide support through WTO disputes. The leading global law firm has been chosen to join the first Post-Brexit trade panel following the deal signed with the EU at the end of last year. The UK Government Trade Law Panel (TLP) will aid the newly independent WTO Member Government which is now responsible for its ...

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UK Economy & US Special Relationship The Bank of England has stated that 2020 will have been the biggest economic slump for the nation in over 300 years. The central bank even cancelled its annual stress test, with new COVID-related additions set for the future tests, of banks to allow for attention to be diverted towards credit flows in order to prop up the economy. FDI also fell by 100% during ...

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UK Economy New data shows the UK economy contracted by 2.6% in November as England was placed into a second lockdown. This was the first monthly fall since April and meant that GDP was 8.5% below the pre-pandemic peak. The ONS has attributed the decline to the widespread damage experienced in services which was led by hospitality, wholesale, retail, arts and the auto sector. The economy did, however, perform far better during ...

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