Royal Bank Of Scotland

Central banks’ unconventional actions – near-zero interest rates, quantitative easing (QE) – are designed to ward-off the threat of deflation. But inflation is negative in the...

Judging by the first two weeks, 2015 is going to be an interesting year. Last week alone brought deflation in the Eurozone, a big fall in US unemployment, more signs of a slowing UK housing market and...

The most obvious sign of falling oil prices is the lower cost of filling up at the petrol station, but the effects are widespread and for most people, welcome. We explore this issue in more detail in...

The Autumn Statement was a game of two halves. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecasts added to confidence that the UK economy will continue to motor along nicely. But the job of...

The story continuesAn overhaul of stamp duty grabbed the headlines but fundamentally the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement was about the next chapters in two long-running sagas. First, completion of...

Last week confirmed the pace of the UK’s recent economic growth, whilst evidence of a slowing housing market mounted. The slowdown in the Eurozone is altogether much more concerning, arguing...

Low inflation, low pay and low interest rates characterise the UK’s economic situation, but as China’s central bank cuts its main interest rate the US Federal Reserve has started to talk...

Stagnation, the curse of low growth, is the new spectre haunting Europe according to Mark Carney. Still, that’s better than recession or deflation, both of which remain realistic probabilities...

Not so long ago its supporters claimed the superiority of the “European model” over the “Anglo-Saxon” one. No longer, with the limping euro area economy enduring a torrid time....

The Fed’s decision to end its quantitative easing (QE) programme is an important staging post on the road to normal conditions. But as frustrated parents tell eager children on long journeys,...

We now know the results of the ECB’s year long banking stress test exercise. For the Eurozone economy this has been a long wait. The coming months will show whether this is enough to boost...

Market movements last week showed just how important the global outlook is to the health and wealth of the UK economy. Worries about Eurozone deflation and slowing global growth trumped yet another...

The International Monetary Fund’s verdict on the world economy is keenly anticipated as a global health-check, even if its forecasting record is no better than anyone else’s. The forecasts...

The UK’s recession and recovery was reinterpreted this week giving the size of the economy a one-off boost. But the latest data show growth is slowing to a more steady pace. Meanwhile the...

This week, figures for the UK economy are going to be revised. It will show that the economy is bigger (and we’ll be richer) than previously thought. And with 2014 moving into its final quarter,...

The UK economy’s ability to create jobs remains strong, but for many workers it’s more of the same when it comes to the pay packet – it’s barely growing. That means economic...